Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner
by BeeKay84
Summary: Nivio was the hero of my previous story TLK3D, my sequel to Simba's Pride. What happened in his life before he met Lina & Takita? Why did he refuse to talk about it all the time? How did he become Loner? COMPLETE!
1. New Lives

DISCLAIMER – I do not own The Lion King or any of its characters. They belong to Disney. But all the characters not appearing in the movies by Disney belong to me, like Nivio (Loner), Kinja, Roho and others who will appear later in this story, like Kuoni, Nakemi, Enia, Jamili and Chuki. In case any of the latter names are already taken, please inform me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Hi there! BeeKay84 is back at FFN! Those who read my story _The Lion King 3: Don't Defy Destiny_ probably still know me. Since TLK3D was finished, I've been concentrating more on fanart, as I wanted to illustrate my characters from that story. I was always planning on this story at the same time, but it took me long to get enough ideas, let alone to write it. My free time (away from University) is still pretty scarce, but I hope it'll be enough to write and upload the chapters of this story in not too long intervals.  
To those who expected a sequel to my TLK3D: Sorry, I haven't thought enough about that yet. But this is a prequel, so to say. I've been intensly thinking about Loner and his hard life before he met Lina & Takita. There had been many traumatizing events in his cubhood which he partly didn't quite remember and some he never talked about (before he became Lina's mate and the future King of the Pridelands). So, this is the story for all those of you who loved this character in my first fanfic. Hope you enjoy. ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER**

**Chapter One: New Lives **

The sun had already disappeared behind the mountains far away from the jungle. It always got dark pretty fast here, as the jungle was surrounded by many high mountains and covered by numerous large trees and plants. This place looked so beautiful at sunset, so romantic. But at night, it somehow lost its beauty and got depressing and cold. On the very top of one of the many large rock formations, with small streams of water falling down into the lake underneath, there lay a sand-colored lioness on her right side. It was one and the same rock formation where, many years ago, Simba and Nala, King and Queen of the Pridelands, had discovered their feelings towards each other for the first time.

Kinja, the lioness lying there, sighed at the thought of the King and Queen and the Pridelands. After all those years that had passed, she still wondered if it had been a mistake to leave. She still remembered that time, as if it had been only the day before.

_-xX Flashback Xx-_

_It was about half a year after the downfall of Zira and the reconciliation between the two Prides. War turned into peace, two Prides turned into one, enemies turned into friends. But could the Pridelands turn into their new home? Sure, they had everything they needed: A warm place to sleep, more than enough water and food. But something was missing. Kinja felt an emptiness deep inside, and she knew why. But she wasn't able to say it aloud. She knew what she was missing, but she couldn't find an explanation for why it was missing._

_One day, she lay at the waterhole in the warm noon sun. As she watched some cubs of the Pride play with each other, her mate Roho approached her and asked: "Kinja, dear, what's wrong with you?"_

_Kinja lifted her head to look into her wonderful mate Roho's emerald green eyes. She sighed and put her head down on her paws again. "Nothing," she replied. "Why should there be anything wrong with me?"_

"_Well, it looks like there is. You're sad about something. What is it, darling?"_

"_I don't want to talk about it."_

_Roho sighed and bent down to nuzzle her. "I know something's troubling you. You have to talk to me, Kinja. It won't get better if you don't tell me. You know, I'm gonna try anything to make it better."_

_Kinja still didn't answer. Roho nudged her and suggested: "Let's go somewhere where we can talk in private, okay?"_

_Finally, Kinja got up on her paws and followed him to the small cave underneath Pride Rock. They just sat there in silence for a while. Roho looked at her, expecting her to speak first. Kinja looked away on the ground with a sad expression in her face. And as some tears started welling up in her water blue eyes, she started: "Roho, I don't know why, but I don't really think I belong here. I just don't feel well. I thought, after half a year at the latest, everything would be fine, but it isn't."_

_Roho didn't really understand: "Well, it might still be a little unaccustomed, but I think we've got everything we need: Food, water, a place to sleep, good friends, a good leader. Maybe you just still need a little more time."_

_Kinja finally sobbed: "Roho, I want to have cubs. I just don't know why I'm not pregnant yet. But I can't be happy in this place without having a little family. Sure, we're together, and I love you, but I want to have cubs."_

_Roho nodded. "If that's what you want, I'll do anything to make you happy. Maybe it's best if we really spent some time alone, some place else."_

_Kinja sniffed. Then she smiled a little bit and said: "Then we only need to ask our King for permission to leave."_

_Suddenly came a voice behind them: "Why do you want to leave?" It was their good friend Kovu, Prince of the Pridelands, just returning from the water hole._

_Kinja turned around to a confused Kovu and said: "Well, Kovu, I… I'm sorry, but you know. We… we just don't really know if we belong here."_

_Kovu replied: "That's sad. I'd really miss you. And I don't really understand, I thought everyone feels at home here by now."_

_Kinja didn't know what to tell him, so Roho answered for her: "We would just like to spend some time… alone. You know?"_

_Kovu smiled and said: "Oh, I see. I felt the same way right before the war. All I wanted was to be together with Kiara. But running away wouldn't have been the right way."_

"_We're not running away," Kinja quickly explained. "I mean, maybe we'll return some day. I wouldn't want to leave my best friends, you and Vitani, forever."_

"_Well, that'd be fine. But still, I'd miss you." Kovu paused for a little while and then turned around, saying: "Come on, let's ask Simba right away. I'll put in a good word for you with him. But I'm sure he'll allow it. After all, he's not Zira, is he?"_

_-xX End of Flashback Xx-_

A long time had passed since then. Kinja and Roho had been at many different places in the past few years. They had spent quite some time alone and with other prides, even with other species, like a few months ago, when they stayed with a clan of cheetahs. But they never had found the right place to be. Now in the jungle, Kinja still didn't feel entirely happy. But soon she would. She lifted her head up from the ground and smiled as she watched the movements of her large belly. Here in the jungle, she finally got pregnant. And now her cub was due any day. She could feel every little movement of the cub inside her. And with every movement, she felt a little bit happier.

At that moment, her mate Roho came back to her. Ever since they found out about her pregnancy, he did the hunting in her stead. He was not a very good hunter, but he still was able to feed both of them. After he put his prey down on the ground, he smiled: "Hey darling, how are you doing?"

Kinja warmly smiled back and said: "I'm fine, my love. Just a little tired is all."

"But you're fine, that's the most important thing." He pointed at the prey and asked: "Don't you want to eat something?"

Kinja shook her head and replied: "No, thank you, darling. I'm too tired to eat. And I'm not hungry. Just eat as much as you want."

"Aren't you supposed to eat for two?" Roho laughed.

Kinja chuckled a bit, then they nuzzled each other lovingly, and Kinja gently licked his check. She looked at her belly again and sighed contently: "I can't wait for our cub to be born."

"Neither can I," Roho smiled. "After all, don't you think that our new lives are turning out wonderful?"

Kinja's smile disappeared as she looked out into the darkness around them. She still thought that this place had a kind of depressing appearance at night. During the day, the jungle always looked so bright and full of life. She loved how the sun fell through the large branches and shone on the water. But at night, even the water seemed to be standing still.

Roho finally noticed her glance and asked again: "Don't you think, darling?"

Kinja quickly turned her head to look at him again and said: "Yes, I… I do. I like how our lives are turning out. But… to be honest, Roho, I don't know if I really like this place."

Roho looked a little worried now: "Why not?"

"I don't know," Kinja replied. "It's just…" She shook her head and tried to smile again: "It's nothing of importance. Like you said, our new lives are turning out great. I mean, there's one good reason for me to like this place…" And with that she joyously looked at her stomach.

Roho nuzzled her and said: "I'm sure this new life is going to be just as wonderful…"

-xXOXx-

The next morning, Kinja awoke with a heavy pain in her belly. First, she thought she had a bad dream. She was still so drowsy that she didn't realize what was going on. But when the pain didn't stop, she clenched her teeth and tried to get up. Then she gasped. Of course, the cub was coming! She roared in pain when another contraction came.

Roho was startled by this. He got up on his shaky paws, his eyes flew open and he looked all about him. "Kinja?" Just now he noticed his mate was still lying next to him, wincing in pain. "Kinja, what happened?"

Kinja breathed heavily and uttered: "The cub…"

"The cub? It's coming? Oh dear, what am I supposed to do? I don't know what to do!" he nearly panicked.

Kinja hissed through her pain: "You should've thought about that earlier…"

Roho tried to calm down and soothed her: "Okay, darling, it's okay. Just try to breathe slower. That's what I learned from the cheetahs. You have to breathe slowly."

Kinja tried to do so. After quite a few minutes, the contractions weren't so bad any more. Kinja gulped and nodded: "Okay… I guess I can do this…"

It still took several hours until the contractions started again. The sun fell in through the trees, climbing higher, leaving a beautiful shine on the water beneath them. Kinja was ready to give birth. She pushed and breathed and pushed and breathed… Roho just held her paw and watched in awe, almost unable to move. Kinja clenched her teeth and pushed once again. Finally, the tiny cub slid out of her. She was totally exhausted, but she intuitively proceeded. And soon, she held her new born cub in her paws and licked it clean. Only by now, Roho was able to move again. He beamed at both of them.

When Kinja had finished cleaning her cub, she looked at it closely. Then she smiled and looked up at Roho: "You know what? It's a boy."

Roho's eyes filled with tears of joy as he whispered: "Our son. Welcome, little one." He nuzzled Kinja and gently licked the cub's tiny head.

"He's wonderful!" Kinja said. "He looks almost like you." The fur of the small cub had a tan color, a little brighter than Roho's. Unlike Roho, his muzzle and belly were sand-colored. Until now, the cub had held his right front paw above the left one. But now he yawned and moved his tiny paws up in the air.

"Aww, just look at that," Kinja noticed. Now they saw that just the tip of the cub's left front paw was sand-colored, too.

"That's very special, I think," Roho said.

After yawning, the little cub blinked at Kinja and smiled. Kinja smiled back at her son. "And look at his eyes," she told her mate. "It's like a mixture of our eye colors." The cub's eyes had a lighter green color than Roho's eyes, and with light blue spots in them.

Roho nuzzled his mate and purred: "He's so adorable. How are we gonna call him?"

Kinja thought for a little while. "How about Nivio? My mother Nanivia's nickname was Nivi, I like the sound of it."

Roho nodded. "Nivio. That's a beautiful name."

Kinja sighed, she was both happy and exhausted. So was her son who napped in her paws with a smile on his cute little face. As Roho lay down beside her, Kinja looked at the jungle around her. In the noon sun, it all looked so peaceful and romantic again. But something troubled her again. Normally, she got this strange feeling about this place only at night. She didn't know why she felt it right now. To forget about it, she looked at her sleeping son in her paws and listened to his purring. But while listening, she also heard something else. And when she looked down, over the edge of the rock they were lying on, she knew what it was that troubled her.

"Roho," she started. "I don't really think this place is safe enough for our little Nivio. We're too high above the ground, and with all that water around…"

Roho nodded and soothed her: "I understand what you mean. We will look for another place to stay as soon as you've regained your strength, is that okay?"

Kinja agreed. But she wanted to make sure not to endanger her cub's safety right away. So, Roho helped her turn around, facing away from the edge of the rock. Kinja and Roho lay there, side by side, holding their son close. Only minutes later, the little family was asleep, in the middle of the quiet jungle and in the middle of a beautiful day.

**End of Chapter One **

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – And thus begins the life of Nivio. I hope you liked this first chapter, though it was mostly about Kinja and Roho. The reason why it took me so long to start writing this story was that I really had no idea how to begin. I hope I found the right way to start. Those of you who read my story TLK3D probably know what's going to happen in the next chapter. There, you're gonna find out _how_ it happened. And then, chapter three and all the chapters following are going to answer all the unanswered questions about Nivio's life before he met Lina and Takita. I don't know when I'll be able to get the next chapter done, but I hope it won't take too much time. Just be patient. Now, please leave a review and tell me what you think about this chapter. ;)

And by the way: I'm going to upload another little story right away, but don't be overjoyed, that story won't have anything to do with The Lion King. But of course, you can take a look at it, if you want. ;) It'll be about Disney's The Weekenders. As I said, the second chapter of this story's gonna take a little longer to be uploaded. So, be patient and see you then. ;)


	2. Tragedy strikes

AUTHOR'S NOTE – My Christmas present to you – chapter 2 of "Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner"! Aww, I'm so sorry I couldn't upload it earlier. But before I waste any time talking about the stress I had, let me give a shout-out for my reviewers on chapter 1:

LMDGlUVR4EVA, Nala5, Demo the Bounding Jackalope, Troy Wong, Kovu115, Kiara32

Thank you so much, you're the best! I'm really glad you like this story so far. There's just one important thing I want to ask: Troy Wong said that my use of the words "Flashback" and "End of Flashback" ruined the chapter. I'm truly sorry for that! What do the others think, do you also think it ruins the chapter? If you do, I'll delete those words from the first chapter, and in any case, I'll make sure not to use them again.

But now, on with the story. This is gonna be a pretty sad part, but I hope you like it.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Two: Tragedy strikes**

Many days went by in the jungle, and those were happy days for Kinja and Roho. Every day, they watched their son's movements and smiles with joy and pride. For the first few weeks, they had been doing nothing but lying there, except for the times when Roho went hunting. Kinja played with Nivio and fed him, and she slowly regained her strength. After about four weeks, she was ready to get up again and search for a new and safer place to stay.

"Are you sure you're strong enough to walk again, honey?" Roho asked her, before they got ready to set out.

Kinja nodded and while getting up, she replied: "Of course, Roho, it's been four weeks now. I feel fine." When she had gotten on her paws, her legs still felt a little wobbly for a while. But it was no big deal, and so she picked up little Nivio by the scruff and mumbled: "Let's go."

And so, they were on their way, following a small path along other rock formations like the one where they had been living for the past months. All the way, there were waterfalls and a river beneath to their right, and large open fields behind the trees to their left. Their surroundings didn't seem to change. In fact, it seemed as if all those rocks were getting higher and higher.

"Maybe we chose the wrong direction," Roho stated. "Maybe we should go back and try the other way."

Kinja looked back at him, shaking her head no. Then Roho suggested: "Or we could just walk through that field and see where this leads us."

At that, Kinja stopped somewhat shocked. She turned around to face her mate and put Nivio on the ground to speak up: "Are you serious? You want to go through that open field, where every creature can see us? Who knows how long this is going to take us?"

"But what do you wanna do? Somehow I think we should've taken the other way. I somewhat remember we came from there when we chose that rock as a place to stay back then."

Kinja shook her head once again and said: "There's got to be something on the end of this path we're going. I don't want to go back, after this long walk."

"Okay," Roho finally agreed.

As they went on, suddenly an odd smell came to Roho's nose. It seemed to be far away, but it made him feel pretty uncomfortable. He never smelled anything like this before, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was the smell of a creature. Kinja didn't seem to notice it, maybe she wasn't able to smell it because she held Nivio in her mouth. Or maybe it was just his imagination?

But as the trees were standing closer together to their left and the path went on, the smell became stronger. He couldn't just imagine it. Now, his feelings changed from uncomfortable to awkward. This whole place seemed creepy to him. How he had wished to turn around! When he just decided to tell his mate about how this place affected him, he noticed that Kinja herself had slowed down and went on in a little more cautious way. Then she stopped. Right in front of her, there was a huge abyss, the river streaming at its bottom. And next to the abyss, where the path ended, surrounded by the large trees, was something like a cave. It seemed to be a very deep cave, as it was totally dark. Kinja started to shiver.

"Roho…," she mumbled anxiously.

Roho appeared beside her and sniffed the peculiar smell. "Dear, I don't know what's inside this cave, but one thing I do know: We should go back right now."

They both turned around, and Roho let Kinja go first. But before they could take another step, they felt the earth moving under their paws. Just a little bit, then heavier. They heard steps behind them, steps of large feet. Cautiously, they turned their heads towards the cave, when a huge dark figure appeared in the entry. Roho gasped, Kinja's eyes went wide with horror. That thing stood on two legs, and it was almost three times as tall as they were! Roho finally found his voice again: "Kinja, run!"

At that, the creature let out a deafening roar. It was a large gorilla. Kinja immediately started to run, Roho behind her. They weren't able to run fast, as the path was very small, limited by the many trees to their right and by the abyss, which was getting a little bit smaller, the further they ran. The gorilla followed with slower, but much larger steps, making the ground shake every time he set a foot on it. Roho and Kinja, with little Nivio in her mouth, stumbled along the small path. When they had reached one of the large rock formations, Kinja tripped all of a sudden. "Kinja!" Roho cried out and stopped to bend over her. Nivio had fallen out of her mouth and slid onto the rock, almost to the edge. The tiny cub squealed with fear. Before Kinja could get up, she crept towards him and took him back into her mouth. But by now, the gorilla had caught up with them. He stood in front of the rock, still making sounds of anger. They were trapped!

"We've got to get back on the path!" Roho said panickingly as he looked down to the river in the abyss underneath them and the water falling at the side of the slippery rocks. He quickly turned to Kinja: "Stay where you are!" And with that, he extended his claws and roared back at the gorilla. The creature looked a little surprised at that, but didn't lose its scary appearance. It roared back and lifted its arms to strike at the lion. Roho took the chance to strike the gorilla's large belly. The gorilla shortly made a painful sound, then moved back a little and tried to hit Roho. Roho ducked away from the huge fist and continued to roar at the creature. He quickly looked back to make sure Kinja was okay and then charged again at the gorilla. This time, he clawed into the gorilla's pelvis and tried to bite into its leg, which was pretty painful for the creature and made it tumble backwards again. Roho continued his scratching and clawing, then he looked behind him again. He just had to get this beast a little further away, so Kinja could get back on the path safely. The gorilla tried to hit Roho again, so he ducked away and then clawed its leg again. Slowly, the creature made another few steps backwards. That was the chance!

"Kinja!" Roho shouted back over his shoulder. When he saw that Kinja was already standing, he continued: "Get back onto the path! Quick!" Kinja nodded and did as he said. But just when she was stepping onto the path behind Roho, the gorilla regained his strength and hit Roho hard with his fist. Roho flew away from the creature and landed on Kinja! Kinja was crushed to the ground under his weight. When her head hit the ground, it happened – her mouth opened from the pain, and Nivio fell out again. He slid down onto a rock ledge underneath, where the water started to stream down. It slowly started to take the cub with it. When Kinja managed to open her eyes again, they went wide with shock. "Nivio!" she screamed, horrified. She crept closer to the edge and tried to reach her cub with one of her paws. But the stream was too strong for the little cub. Nivio glanced at his mother, with horror in his eyes, as he suddenly was taken down the waterfall and disappeared in the abyss. Kinja cried: "NOOOOOO!"

Roho winced in pain as he finally got back onto his paws. He had perceived Kinja's cry, but he couldn't think about its meaning, as he had to get ready for attack again. The gorilla bent over him in a threatening way. But now, Roho fought fiercer than ever, driven by anger. He roared and clawed and bit and struck, until he scratched a deep wound into one of the gorilla's eyes. The gorilla roared louder than ever, stumbling around, blinded by the wound. The creature couldn't see where it was stepping, and so, it tripped over the edge of a rock and fell down into the abyss. One could hear a loud splash when it landed on the ground in the river.

After Roho had watched the gorilla fall down, he collapsed to the ground. He was entirely exhausted from the fight. Soon, Kinja walked towards him on wobbly legs, tears in her eyes and all over her face, sobbing: "Roho… oh no, please… wake up." She nudged him with her wet nose, but he didn't move. She sniffed and lay down beside him, placing her head on his cheek. He was breathing, she could feel it. "Roho…," she started again, sobbing even more. "Wake up. I… have to… tell… you… I… lost our son!" Then she could no longer hold it and cried heavily, letting her tears fall into Roho's mane.

-

Down in the abyss, in the middle of the river, lay the gorilla, water streaming around its dead body. Its neck was broken when it had hit the ground. Not too far away, downstream, there was a large bush, growing beside the river. Beneath the thick leaves of the bush, there lay the tiny tan-colored lion cub. Nivio was bleeding out of some scratches all over his small body. He was stuck in the bush, but the water was streaming right below him. The cub was still breathing, very flatly. The twigs of the bush gradually bent down under his weight, water touching his fur.

-

High above, Kinja kept crying into Roho's mane, when he finally woke up. "Uh, Kinja," he groaned, "It's okay, I'm alive." Kinja gasped and even smiled for a short moment, relieved that her mate had woken up. But when Roho had managed to sit upright again, she started sobbing again. Roho looked at her in a confused way.

"Kinja, dear? Where's our son?" he asked in a worried way.

Kinja sniffed: "Roho, our Nivio… he… I believe he is… dead."

"What? How?"

"He fell down the waterfall," she sobbed. "I lost him… It's all my fault!"

Roho was shocked to hear that. He looked all about him, as if he didn't believe Nivio was gone. But then, he nuzzled his mate, with tears in his eyes, and said: "No, dear, don't say that. I'm sure it wasn't your fault. Maybe he's still alive…"

"He was just a little baby!" Kinja cried. "A four weeks old baby! How could he survive that? But _if_ he survived, I _have_ to find him!"

She was about to climb down, but Roho held her back. "Kinja, no, it's too steep and slippery here. We have to find a safer way down."

"But, Roho, he needs me! I have to find him _now_!"

"If you fall down, you can't help him any more! Kinja, please. Let's find a safer way down."

He looked into her eyes, with a sad, yet hopeful expression. Finally, Kinja stopped sobbing and looked back into his eyes. She sniffed and nodded: "Alright."

-

The river was streaming fast, taking the small cub with it. After a long way downstream, the river ended in a small lake. There, Nivio lay on the shore, completely wet, but no longer bleeding out of his wounds. Only a short time later, a shadow fell on him. It was the shadow of another creature.

"Oh my, what's this?" came a gentle male voice. "This little guy doesn't look too well."

Two hands cautiously lifted up the small cub. Those were the hands of a monkey.

"I think he's still alive," the monkey thought to himself, "But he's not in a good condition. I wonder what happened to him. Or to his parents. I'll do what I can for him."

He held the cub tight in his arms and made his way back to his place, deeper into the jungle.

**End of Chapter Two**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you liked this chapter. It was pretty hard to write, but I hope it's okay. I just remember that Lion King computer game I once had. Do you know that? I loved that game! Do you remember that level in the jungle, where Simba is attacked by a gorilla? I think it's the same gorilla. Well, and about that monkey in the end: I'm sure you can figure that it's _not_ Rafiki – but I just wanted to make that clear again.

Well now, I don't know when I get to update again. It's probably going to take about as long as it took me for this chapter, or even longer, because I'll have quite many exams at University in January. So, all that's left for me to do now is wish you a merry Christmas and a great start into the new year 2006! Have a great time and see you around!


	3. Near death

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I'm finally back again with a new chapter! But first, here's my shout-out for the reviewers on chapter 2:

**Demo the Bounding Jackalope, LMDGlUVR4EVA, Simba's Other Daughter, Kovu115, Lily, Kiara32, Sun Rei Lioness**

Thank you all so much, I'm so flattered by all your nice reviews! Special thanks to my friend **Sun Rei Lioness** who just started reading. Read her story **"The Marking"**, it's so awesome!

On another note, I'm really glad no one else thought that my use of the words "Flashback" and "End of Flashback" ruined the first chapter. Maybe that Troy Wong guy is just some kind of "polite flamer", 'cause I've heard he often just reviews like the first chapter of a story and then never again and says such confusing things. But still, I think I'm gonna leave out the words "Flashback" and "End of Flashback" from now on, at least when it's obvious that the parts written in _italics_ are flashbacks (like it was in chapter 1 of this story).

Now, you're going to find out about that monkey who took the wounded little Nivio in. I can tell you, that monkey doesn't have any kind of relation to Rafiki. The monkey is no mandrill, and I don't think he even knows Rafiki. He's just any kind of jungle resident. No, enjoy this chapter.

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Three: Near death**

Finally, Kinja and Roho had found a safe path down the abyss and to the river. After a while, they reached the place where Nivio had fallen down. The lifeless body of the large gorilla still lay there in the middle of the river, water streaming past its sides. Kinja shuddered when she got aware of the gorilla's corpse. Her steps slowed down as she cautiously approached the dead creature and sniffed, making sure it's really dead. Tears welled up in her eyes again as she inspected the place all around it, looking for her little son. Roho now stood beside her, still shocked as well.

Kinja looked over at her mate with teary eyes and asked: "Do you think it… it crushed him?"

Roho gulped and replied weakly: "I don't know. I think we better see if we find him."

They both sniffed and searched for him at the river's shores near the gorilla's dead body. When Kinja found a little bush near the river, she noticed a familiar scent. At a closer look, she also spotted some blood and fur on the twigs. There was no doubt. Nivio must have fallen into this bush. But where was he now?

"Roho!" Kinja called. "Over here!"

Roho approached her immediately. He gaped at the bush, when Kinja said in a sad voice: "Nivio was here. He lost blood, maybe too much. But where is he?"

Roho looked down at the water beneath and gazed after the stream where the river disappeared behind some trees. Then he said: "He was probably taken away by the stream. If we follow the river, maybe we'll find him."

"But what if he drowned?"

Roho's head sunk. He sniffed and sighed: "There's a small chance he's still alive. Come on, dear, let's go."

With that, he started walking along the river, and Kinja followed behind him on trembling legs.

-xXOXx-

Far away from the two of them, deeper inside the jungle on a clearing, there was a large tree with a very small hollow in front of it. Inside that hollow, leaning against the tree, a female monkey was sitting with a smile on her face, glancing at her sleeping little baby, cradling it softly. Another monkey approached the two of them, holding a tiny furry creature in his arms. It was the male monkey who had found Nivio. When the female heard the gentle steps coming closer, she turned her head to see him and smiled: "Jamili, there you are. Where have you been, darling?"

Now the male monkey, whose name was Jamili, was standing next to her, smiling back at his wife and their little daughter. He answered: "Look what I found, Chuki. This poor little guy was all alone."

When Jamili lowered himself and showed the tiny lion cub in his arms, his wife Chuki frowned. "What's this?" she asked in confusion.

Jamili didn't really notice her frown and answered with excitement in his voice: "It's a lion cub. It looks still very young, and I don't know what happened to it. I found it at the shore by the river. It's badly injured."

Chuki rolled her eyes and let out a deep, annoyed sigh. "Jamili, please! Not again!"

Now, Jamili was startled. "What? What not again?"

"Please, don't tell me you want to take care of this creature you found again? Everytime you find an injured baby animal, you have this strange urge to help and cure it. I thought you'd stop doing that when we have babies of our own!"

"But Chuki…," Jamili said. "What do you expect me to do? When I find such a little animal, do you expect me to let it die?"

"Jamili, listen…," Chuki said in a serious voice. "_We_ are monkeys. _This_," she pointed at the cub, "is a lion. Monkeys don't look after lions."

"But I can't let him die! He's a living thing, like you and me – and our daughter. I'm sure his parents are still around somewhere, and if…"

"Then go look for the parents and give that – thing – back to them. But don't bother _me_ with it!"

"By the time I find the parents, this cub could already be dead!"

Chuki grunted angrily. She turned her head away from Jamili and grumbled: "I really don't understand why you care more for other species than for your own kind."

Jamili sighed. "That's not true, Chuki. You know I love you and our daughter. But now I have wasted enough time, I have to see if I can save this poor little cub."

With that, he held Nivio tight again in his one arm, and with the other hand, he climbed their large tree. Chuki just grunted again and shook her head in disbelief.

-xXOXx-

Up in the tree, on a thick branch, Jamili carefully put down the cub and reached for a large leaf. Like many monkeys, Jamili knew quite a lot about herbs and about how to heal wounds. He never had a case as bad as Nivio before, though, but he hoped his knowledge would be enough and time would be with him. He sat down and placed the leaf in front of himself and put some berries onto it. Then, he grabbed a liana and tore off a piece of it. With his claws, he scratched the liana open and then pressed some kind of liquid out of it onto the berries. He mixed the liquid and the juice of the berries together into a yellowish paste.

"Don't worry, little one, everything will be fine," he whispered in a trembling voice and gently stroked Nivio's chest with two fingers. He merely felt the cub's heartbeat. Jamili took some of the paste and cautiously moistened Nivio's wounds with it. After he finished, he stroked the cub's forehead and frowned. With a worried expression, he gently lifted the little lion up and placed him on the leaf, which was twice his size. He wrapped the leaf around Nivio's tiny body and took the cub into his arms.

"Please, you have to make it," Jamili said and cradled the cub in his arms.

-xXOXx-

By now, Kinja and Roho had reached the little lake in which the river ended. There was no sign of Nivio. Roho noticed some footprints at the shore. To him, it looked like some monkey-like creature went past the lake and then back again. He couldn't know that the water had already washed away the other footprints on the shore which would have shown that the creature had picked up Nivio. Roho sniffed and thought about what could have happened here.

Kinja was sniffing for the scent of her son, closer to the water. But it was of no use. There was no trace of him any more. Kinja looked up and turned her head towards her mate. "Where could he be?" she sniffed. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know," Roho said worriedly, looking up from the footprints on the ground. "Someone went here, only a short time ago. But whatever creature it was, I don't know if it came near our son or not."

Now, Kinja started crying again. She sobbed: "Whatever it was, it probably killed him. Oh, Roho…" She rushed away from the water to her mate and began crying into his mane. "We've lost him. We're never gonna see him again!"

Roho wanted to soothe her, but he couldn't. He just started crying, too. As he gently rubbed his mate's neck with his wet muzzle, he sniffed: "I can't believe it. But it seems to be true. Our son is… dead."

After a lot of crying, Kinja lifted her head up from his mane, but kept her eyes closed. She cried: "WHY? Why did this happen? Why was our son taken away from us?"

"I don't know, Kinja," Roho said weakly. "I just don't know."

"I hate this place!" Kinja sobbed in an almost angry way, opening her eyes again. "Just until yesterday, I felt so happy here, but now I hate it!"

Roho nodded slightly. "I don't believe I still want to live here, either," he agreed. "But where could we go? Back to the cheetahs?"

Kinja shook her head and sniffed: "No. No, I don't think I want to go back there."

There was a long silence. Their streams of tears just wouldn't cease. But they both thought hard. After a while, suddenly a very subtle smile came across Kinja's mouth. She looked at Roho and said: "I think there's only one place left for us to go. A place with good friends around."

Now, Roho smiled a little bit, too. "I know who you mean. Kovu, Vitani…"

Kinja sighed. "I really miss them."

"Me too," Roho said. He licked away the tears on Kinja's muzzle and asked: "Do you feel ready to return to the Pridelands?"

Kinja sniffed shortly, but nodded. "I don't know if I'm ready. But I _want_ to return. It might be the only way to get over it…"

Roho nuzzled her and said: "We've got to be strong now, dear. It's certainly gonna hurt for a long time, but we'll make it."

Kinja nodded and nuzzled back. "But I don't want to tell anyone," she said then. "I think that'd only make things worse."

"That's okay," Roho agreed. They both could not help but cry again. The pain was still too deep. The lion couple sat there, crying in each other's fur, for almost half an hour. Then they slowly began walking back the way they came, and out of the jungle, into the South. On their way, they would often stop to cry and comfort each other.

-xXOXx-

A few miles away from the place the two lions had left, deeper in the jungle, on his large tree, Jamili still sat on the same branch as before, cradling the little lion cub in his arms. He hardly ever moved, afraid of hurting the small cub. Jamili's heart was beating fast, but at the same time, he felt the cub's heart beating slower and slower. He feared it might stop soon.

"Jamili, come on down already! Your daughter's awake and wants to see her daddy!" his wife Chuki called from underneath.

But Jamili would neither come down, nor would he answer. He didn't want to break the silence between himself and the cub. Gently and carefully, he rubbed the cub's back.

"Jamili!" Chuki called again, very angry this time. "What the heck are you doing so long up there? Come down!"

Jamili remained quiet and kept rubbing the lion cub's back, now faster, but still very careful. Somehow, he felt the cub's body getting warmer. After a while, he stopped rubbing and sat still. Just then, he felt a soft warm breeze on his left shoulder. Jamili looked up at the sky and the upper branches in surprise. No, there was no wind at all. The monkey looked at his own left shoulder, as he noticed another very little breeze on it. He saw the cub in his arms, with the small head resting on his left shoulder. Jamili smiled happily.

"He breathes again," he whispered with joy. "Thank goodness, he's alive."

Jamili also felt the cub's heart beating a little bit faster again. He carefully lifted Nivio up and held him in front of his own head. Very slowly, the cub's eyes opened half-way. Jamili smiled at him, and Nivio made a gentle, squeaking sound.

**End of Chapter Three**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – There, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm sorry I couldn't update earlier. I have so many things planned for this story and want to write them down and upload them as fast as I can. But I'm so busy at university all the time, and even though I'm on vacation this month, I hardly ever find the time to write.  
Well now, how do you like the monkey couple Jamili & Chuki so far? They're quite different, aren't they? Not only their personalities, but also their names have totally different meanings. While "Jamili" means "nice" in Swahili, "Chuki" means "despise, aversion, contempt". Jamili is nice and friendly towards every one, while Chuki only likes her own kind.  
Kinja & Roho's part in this story is pretty much over now. But Nivio's is just about to really begin. In the next chapter and all the chapters that will follow, you will find out everything about the past he refused to talk about. I might write a little part about Kinja & Roho's return to the Pridelands, too, but I'm not sure about this yet. Okay, we'll see when I get the next chapter done. Until then, be patient and please review. :) See you around.


	4. Growing up with monkeys

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I can't believe how long I let you guys wait again! Sorry, I was so stressed! But now I've been on a little vacation (which is almost over now) and I don't have to learn for any exams at the moment – yeah! Well, let's come to my shout-out for the reviewers on chapter 3 first:

**Demo the Bounding Jackalope, Kiara 01, Nala5, Bribles, Kiara32, Kovu115**

Thank you so much, you're the best! I'm always looking forward to getting your kind reviews! I don't really have much to say this time, so let's get straight to the 4th chapter! Enjoy. :)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Four: Growing up with monkeys**

Jamili was very happy about the lion cub's signs of life. He stayed on the branch cradling the cub for another few minutes, before he finally climbed down to see his wife and daughter. Chuki was suckling their daughter at the moment Jamili approached them. She was still angry at her husband for apparently caring more about a lion cub than about his own family and so, she avoided looking at him. Jamili looked over Chuki's shoulder and smiled at his daughter who fixed a happy gaze upon him. When she stopped sucking milk from her mother and smiled at him, Jamili addressed her: "Hi, Salina, sweety. How are you?"

The tiny monkey made a joyous sound in reply. Now, Chuki turned her head to look at him, but she frowned again as she noticed the cub in his arms. "You brought it again?" she asked in an annoyed way.

Jamili nodded and replied: "He's still alive, he just woke up a few minutes ago. It's like a miracle."

Chuki rolled her eyes. "So, why don't you go look for the parents then to give it back?"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Jamili explained, cradling little Nivio again. "He's still too weak. I don't want to endanger him. He needs to eat a bit first."

At that, Chuki looked away from him to devote her attention to her daughter again, mumbling in a mocking way: "Then why don't you catch some food for it? I'm sure you know exactly what lion cubs eat, being such an expert."

"I never found such a young creature before," Jamili continued in a serious voice. "He probably still needs milk from his mother for a while. But as his mother isn't here, I thought… maybe…"

When he didn't continue for quite a while, Chuki turned to him and asked: "Maybe what?"

Jamili looked at her with big eyes. Chuki gasped and went mad: "No way! Jamili, you're not going to tell me you want me to suckle that… that thing?"

"Come on, Chuki, please. He's still an infant, like our daughter."

"I said no! _Un_like our daughter, this is _not_ my baby and it is _not_ even a monkey!"

"But he still needs to be suckled at least for a few more weeks, I believe."

Chuki pulled a face: "But certainly not by me! That's disgusting!"

"Why can't you at least try it? Please, Chuki. I want to help him. Help me, please."

At that, Chuki sighed. She hated how her husband always wanted to help other creatures. But even more than that, she hated arguing with him. However, he had never asked her to help such a creature herself, especially not by doing something like that. But she also knew that Jamili wouldn't stop asking her for this favor. She had no choice.

"Alright," she replied, "if I do this, will you promise me that this is the last time you're going to take in another animal? And you'll only care for that lion for as long as it is necessary?"

Jamili hesitated, but then he said: "Okay, I promise everything you want, if you just help him."

"Well, then let's try this, for crying out loud! But I warn you, if this lion bites me or anything like that, I don't know what!"

Jamili smiled and took Salina from her. In return, he carefully gave Nivio to Chuki. She touched the cub in a way as if it was something poisonous. Closing her eyes in disgust, she put him to one of her teats, but Nivio turned his little head away. Jamili gently tried to push his head towards it again, but Nivio didn't react.

"Try the other one," Jamili suggested. Chuki did as he said, but the lion cub still refused to drink.

"Maybe he's not hungry," Chuki said, begging for this to be over soon in her thoughts.

Jamili waited for another few seconds, before he took Nivio again and gave Salina back to his wife. "We can try again later. Maybe he just needs to get accustomed to you. I'm gonna try to look for his parents, and if I don't find them, we'll try again."

With that, he went off, with Nivio in his arms, carefully carrying him. When he was far away enough, Chuki shook her head, cradled her daughter and sighed, looking at her: "Why does your daddy sympathize with just about everything, huh?"

-xXOXx-

Jamili had spent hours and hours searching for the lion cub's parents, but in vain. He didn't get far, only a few miles around his tree, to the shore of the river where he had found the cub and a few yards around that place. The reason why it took him so very long was that he went very slowly, being so careful not to endanger little Nivio. When the sun began to set and he still had found no sign of the lion parents, he made his way back to the tree.

It was almost dark by the time he arrived there. Chuki was just about to feed Salina once again before going to sleep. When Jamili arrived, Chuki started to feel uncomfortable at the sight of the lion cub again.

"Let's try it once again, okay?" Jamili said, kneeling beside Chuki.

"So, you couldn't find the parents?" she asked, as Salina started to drink.

"No, unfortunately, I didn't. I searched near the place where I found him, the whole afternoon."

"Okay, just wait 'til I have fed Salina," Chuki sighed in an annoyed way.

Jamili thought for a moment. Then he suggested: "Why don't you try it right away? Maybe if he sees what Salina does, it's easier for him?"

Before Chuki could give an answer, he placed Nivio on her, next to Salina. Chuki almost boiled inside, but she tried to suppress her anger. First, Nivio didn't do anything. Then, he turned his head away, looking at Jamili with a confused expression.

Jamili got a little closer, smiled at him and carefully turned the little cub's head around to face Salina, saying: "Look, little one, this is what you must do…"

When Nivio saw the little monkey next to him, he looked at her in a very interested way. Salina noticed this and looked back at him with big eyes. She stopped sucking milk from her mom and looked at the lion cub with the same confusion he had in his eyes. But then, she smiled at him and giggled happily. Curiously, she reached for him with her left hand, touching his nose and his fur. Nivio squeaked and smiled back at her. After a little while, Salina got hungry again, and so she continued drinking. Nivio watched in amazement. When she was finished, the baby monkey smiled at the lion cub again and pointed to Chuki's teat, right in front of him. Nivio looked at it and then – he started drinking from it!

Jamili beamed with joy at this sight, while Chuki pulled a face and uttered a disgusted sound. "He's drinking!" Jamili said happily. "Finally!" Then he noticed the look on Chuki's face and put his arms around her. "I can't thank you enough, Chuki! I hope it's not too hard for you."

Slightly annoyed, but with a trace of humor, Chuki answered: "It's not, if I don't look."

After Nivio had drunk enough, it was time to go to sleep for Salina. She already yawned, and so, Chuki held her tight in her arm and was about to climb the tree, but Jamili didn't follow her. She asked: "Aren't you coming?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to take the cub up there. Lions can't climb like us. He could fall off the tree in his sleep," Jamili answered. He leaned himself against the tree, held Nivio in his arms and added: "I think I better stay down here with him."

"Are you serious? You never slept down there before! What if something attacks you?"

"It'd be even more dangerous for him, if I took him up in the tree."

Chuki shook her head in disbelief, but she didn't want to argue again. So, she came back down with Salina and cuddled herself up next to Jamili. She sighed and said: "I can't believe I'm doing this. But I don't want Salina to spend the night without her daddy near her." In a low voice, she added: "I couldn't even sleep without you near me, either."

Jamili smiled and rubbed his cheek against hers. Chuki sighed and glanced at the lion cub in Jamili's arms. Nivio had just fallen asleep. "Well, he's… kinda cute when he sleeps. Though not nearly as cute as our daughter," Chuki stated. Before Jamili could reply, she added: "I wouldn't want this to stand between us, Jamili."

"Me, neither," Jamili sighed. "I'm thankful for your help. I don't know what I would do without you. I love you, Chuki."

"I love you, too," Chuki whispered.

They put their heads close to each other and looked at their little daughter as she slowly began to sleep as well. Jamili soon closed his eyes, too, but Chuki couldn't sleep for a long time. She still felt pretty awkward and couldn't believe how she was acting against her principles. But she was doing it for Jamili, and for their love…

-xXOXx-

For the next few days, everything went well. Nivio drank more each time Chuki fed him and regained his strength. And he now did it without Salina showing him how. Jamili spent most of his time with Nivio, cradling the little cub. He also tried to play a little with the cub by tickling his little belly and Nivio would giggle and try to catch the monkey's hand. Sometimes, he brought Nivio and Salina together to accustom them to each other. The two infants curiously sniffed at and touched each other's fur, smiled at each other and giggled and squeaked happily together. Jamili watched them with joy.

The only one who wasn't happy about all this was Chuki. She still felt a strong aversion against the little lion cub. Whenever she had to feed Nivio, it took her a whole lot of effort not to show her disgust. She could only manage it by not looking at the cub and by thinking she would only have to do that for a few more weeks. Most of the day, she sat in the hollow in front of their tree, leaning against it, with Salina in her arms or all alone, when Jamili played with Salina and Nivio. Chuki didn't want to play with both their daughter and the lion cub. She didn't want to spend more time with the cub than it was necessary. Somehow, she liked how Jamili spent some time with Salina that way. But Chuki felt like he neglected her in some way. She didn't know how to tell her husband that he hurt her with this behavior.

Four days after Jamili had found Nivio, a leopard came near their tree. He belonged to a clan a few miles northeastern of the jungle and meant no harm. Jamili and Chuki often saw members of that clan wandering around in the jungle. They even knew many of them by name. The one who came that day was called Akida. Jamili, who was just playing with Salina and Nivio again, noticed him approaching already by his scent. So, he wasn't scared when he heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. He and Chuki both had a quite indifferent attitude towards the leopard clan. But Jamili knew something about them that made him have a rather bad opinion of them. However, he always tried to be friendly towards them.

When the leopard appeared, Jamili greeted him: "Hello, Akida. So, wandering around in the jungle again?"

"Hello, Jamili. Hello, Chuki. Yeah, indeed," Akida answered. "I thought it's been a while, so I just come here and see if I find anything… you know."

"I know," Jamili replied. "Well, how is everything in your clan?"

"Like always. Still the same. Still waiting for change to come." At that, he looked down and noticed the two infants playing in front of Jamili. "Oh," he said in surprise. "You have a baby now. Congratulations."

"Thank you," Jamili answered, but he felt pretty uncomfortable as he noticed Akida's gaze on little Nivio.

The leopard began to smirk and said: "Now, what do we have here? That's a lion cub, right? You took him in?"

"Yes, I did," Jamili replied in a careful way. "He was horribly wounded when I found him, I couldn't leave him like that."

"I see," Akida said. "He's still pretty young, isn't he? He would need a mother, right?"

"Yes but fortunately, with our daughter born, Chuki can feed him as well. She's doing a great job!" At that, Chuki gave a fake smile from behind him. Jamili couldn't see it, but Akida did.

After a short while, Akida suggested: "Well… if it's too much for you to care for him, I'm sure there are females in our clan who would love to take him in…"

At that, Jamili got furious – which is extremely unusual for him. But memories came up inside him, and he just couldn't take it. "No way, Akida! Never!" He quickly picked up Nivio from the ground and protectively held him in his arms. "I know what you do to cubs like him! I won't let you have him for your horrible cult!"

"What cult, Jamili?" Akida asked, a bit shocked by Jamili's reaction. "We don't have a cult. We have a prophecy that needs to be fulfilled some day."

"I don't care how you call it, it's just cruel and not right! And I will NEVER let you do anything to this young lion cub! And now go! Go away!"

Akida gasped, but he did as Jamili said. After a few steps, he turned around one more time and said: "Pity. He could have been the one." He didn't wait for a reply and went on.

Jamili, still holding Nivio, glared after him for a while. He then looked down at the cub in his arms. Nivio looked pretty confused. Jamili forced a smile and said: "Don't worry, little one. I'll never give you away, I promise. Especially not to them."

With that, he gently rubbed his cheek against Nivio's. Chuki, who was still silently leaning against the tree, couldn't help but feel betrayed. That wasn't what he had promised to her…

**End of Chapter Four**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – So, this was chapter 4, I hope you liked it. I really felt a little bad for Chuki while writing this. Well, if you're wondering about the leopard clan, you'll find out about them in the next chapter(s). I wish I could get the chapters done faster. I'm giving my best, so don't be mad at me if it takes longer again, okay? Just be patient. Bye for now!


	5. Mommy?

AUTHOR'S NOTE – What? When was my last update? April, 22nd? Oh man, I feel so bad. I'm really sorry I let you wait so long again! Someone even asked me if I gave up writing this story. I swear to you: I'd never give up this story! Our profs at university were trying to kill us with work & exams! But now, I'm on summer vacation! YEAH! So, I finally have more time to write! But first, a big thanks to the people who reviewed chapter 4:

**Bribles, Kovu115, Ochi, Lily**

Not many this time, because Ochi actually reviewed chapter 2 and Lily chapter 1. But thank you all, esp. Bribles & Kovu115 for being my most faithful reviewers! You're the greatest! I really hope you & others who get (back) to reading my fanfic enjoy this next chapter! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Five: Mommy?**

As days went by, turning into weeks, little Nivio grew stronger and so did Jamili's and Chuki's daughter Salina. The little monkey didn't need to be suckled any longer, and she already said a few words to her parents. She also talked to Nivio sometimes, then he usually looked at her in a pretty confused way, which made Salina giggle. Jamili always smiled when that happened. So did Chuki, but her smile faded when Jamili then said to Salina: "You know, sweety, I guess it'll still take a while 'til he can answer you." He then always rubbed Nivio's head which made Chuki believe he loved that lion cub more than his own daughter. Or probably more than her.

One day, while Salina and Nivio were playing together, a thought came to Jamili. He turned to look at his wife who was leaning against the tree again, watching the two infants with frustration, and said: "You know, now that we've been taking care of him for such a long time, I think he should have a name. Yet, I always called him 'little one',… or you called him 'that thing'. He should have a real name."

Chuki tried to suppress a grunt and retorted: "Maybe he already _has_ a name. He did have parents, you know. A new name might confuse him."

"Maybe…," Jamili agreed, but after a little while he added: "But we don't know his name. He can't tell us. And he probably forgot his name, as he was separated from his parents so soon."

"Well, if it's so important for you, then think of a new name for… that thing."

Jamili sighed: "I better should, or else you're gonna call him 'that thing' forever."

Chuki shook her head and mumbled to herself: "Who says I'm gonna stop calling him that once he has a name?"

Of course, Jamili didn't hear that and turned to look at Nivio and Salina again. While watching them, he tried to think of a name for the little lion. Salina babbled a few words to Nivio, like she always did when they were playing. Suddenly, she poked the lion's left front paw, the only one that had a different color than the rest of his fur. While doing so, Salina said: "Fur… fur… much fur…"

"Yes, sweety, he has much fur," Jamili told her. "More than we have."

Salina looked at her daddy, but didn't stop poking Nivio's paw. "Fur…," she repeated. "Fur bright…" Then she pointed at another one of Nivio's paws and said: "Fur dark."

Jamili nodded and said: "Yeah, the fur of his one paw is brighter than the others. They're different."

At that, Salina smiled. "Diff-end…," she tried to repeat and started to giggle. "He diff-end…"

"He's different, yes," Jamili agreed. Somehow that made him think. "He's different. Different… Mbali – that means different." He quickly turned around to ask his wife: "Darling, what do you think of the name Mbali for him?"

Chuki didn't care, but of course, she didn't want to show that. "Okay, whatever," she replied. But she thought to herself: "Why doesn't he realize that thing _is_ different – from us?"

-xXOXx-

Now that Jamili has given the lion cub a name, he was more excited than ever about taking care of "Mbali". This, of course, really bothered Chuki. There was just one thing that soothed her anger: About one week after that, Nivio didn't need to suck milk from her any more. Chuki felt really relieved about that. It also meant that Jamili needed to get more food for Nivio. He always brought the same food for him as for Salina, like bananas and other fruits or plants. Nivio actually liked it, as he never knew anything else. Sometimes, Jamili would take Nivio with him to find some water for him, and Chuki did the same with Salina when she was thirsty. Chuki truely enjoyed those moments. Just her and her daughter – and no lion cub. The only one she missed in this picture was Jamili.

One day, when Jamili was away to get food, Chuki was left alone with Salina and Nivio once again. Like always in that situation, she played with Salina and tried to ignore Nivio the best she could.

"Mommy?" Salina asked shortly after she started playing with her mother. "Daddy go? Where daddy go?"

Chuki smiled, as she often heard that question from her. She answered the same as always: "He's getting some food for us, my dear. He should be back soon."

Salina usually then continued to play with her, but this time she frowned. Somehow, she must have heard something in her mother's voice or seen something in her eyes that confused her. She looked up at Chuki again and asked: "Mommy? M-Bali play?"

At first, Chuki didn't understand what she meant. But then she turned her head shortly to see the lion cub crouching behind her. Obviously, her daughter wanted to know why she only played with her and not with "Mbali". With a little trace of anger in her voice, which she couldn't completely hide, Chuki answered: "Well… you play with him so often, your daddy plays with him so often – isn't that enough?" She sighed and lifted her head up to gaze into the jungle around them. Then she added: "Your daddy will be here soon, and then he sure will play with both of you again."

She still gazed into nothingness for a while, until she heard a tiny voice again: "Mommy?"

Chuki looked down at her daughter and smiled. "What is it, dear?" she asked softly. But Salina just stared in a confused way.

"Mommy?"

There it was again – but Salina's mouth didn't move. Now, Salina looked amazed. Chuki looked shocked. She slowly turned around to look at the lion cub.

"Mommy?" That tiny voice – it was Nivio!

For a moment, Chuki just stared. Somehow, she wasn't prepared for this. She never thought this lion cub could talk. But it wasn't just the fact that he talked that made her feel shocked. It was the fact that he talked to _her_. And it was this word, his first word. It not only shocked her, it made her angry again. She hissed at the cub: "I'm _not_ your Mommy."

But Nivio repeated: "Mommy."

Now, Chuki could no longer hold it back. She nearly shouted: "I'm NOT your Mommy! I'm a monkey, you're a lion! I'm NOT a lion! Don't you ever call me Mommy again! Get that!" And with that, as if she was out of control, Chuki grabbed Nivio's tiny muzzle and in her rage she tore at his whiskers. One moment later, she held one of his whiskers in her hand, and Nivio squealed in pain! The left side of his muzzle hurt badly. There he lay, close to the ground, rubbing his muzzle with both his front paws, crying and sobbing.

Little Salina gazed in shock. Just now, Chuki realized what she has done. "Oh no… Jamili will hate me if he finds out I hurt him. What can I do?" She looked all about her, as if she expected Jamili to stand right behind her. But he wasn't there – yet. She had to do something to soothe the cub and make him stop crying. She saw no other way. Carefully, she took Nivio into her arms, cradled and stroked him softly. At first, Nivio twitched, afraid of being hurt again. But then, his sobbing slowly began to cease.

"Shhh… Okay… it's okay…," she mumbled.

A few minutes later, Jamili returned to them. Chuki still held Nivio in her arms. Jamili was pretty surprised to see them like that. But after a closer look, he asked in a worried way: "Was he crying?"

Chuki gulped shortly and replied: "He… he hurt himself… while playing with Salina. But it's okay now, it wasn't that bad."

Jamili smiled and said: "It's great to see how you care about him."

Chuki nodded and forced a smile. Secretly, she was glad Salina couldn't talk well enough to tell him the truth.

-xXOXx-

A few weeks passed without any incidents. Chuki's bad conscience about what she did to Nivio made her almost forget all her anger. Nivio soon began to talk more which made Jamili happier every day. But as time went by, and weeks turned into months, Chuki more and more began to feel the way she did before. She just couldn't take it how much Jamili cared about this lion cub, while he hardly cared about her. At least to her, it seemed like he didn't care. If it weren't for "Mbali", they would live a happy family life together, she thought.

By now, Salina and Nivio both were no longer infants. They had grown a lot and were able to run around and talk to each other, to Jamili and Chuki. Salina and Nivio were very curious and their greatest desire was to explore the jungle on their own. The monkey couple had to be very careful now not to let them get out of their sight. Sometimes, Jamili took Salina and Nivio with him to show them other parts of the jungle. They were always pretty excited about that. Chuki never wanted to take part in these excursions.

One time, while Jamili, Salina and Nivio were away on such an excursion, Chuki leaned against the tree again, like always. She enjoyed the silence and felt relieved, like she only did when the lion cub wasn't around. It was so hard for her not to show her anger and contempt towards the cub in front of Jamili, so she really felt at ease when she was alone. But this time, after a few minutes of being alone, she suddenly heard a rustling in the bushes nearby. First, she was a bit startled. But then she knew it could only be one of the leopards again, as she noticed his scent. When he appeared in front of her, she recognized him as Rubani.

"Hello, Chuki," Rubani said. "All alone? I hope I didn't scare you."

"No, Rubani, you didn't. I smelled you already," Chuki answered and added: "Jamili's exploring the jungle with our little Salina."

"Oh, so you have a daughter now? Right. Akida mentioned that some time ago. Then why aren't you with them?"

Chuki sighed. With a trace of anger in her voice, she said: "Well, Jamili has also taken that thing with him… that thing he calls 'Mbali' which he loves more than his own kind."

Rubani looked confused. "What thing?" he asked.

"You know Jamili," Chuki explained. "He always takes in other creatures whenever he gets the chance to. This time, he found a lion cub and still thinks he needs to care for it."

At that, Rubani got curious: "A lion cub, you say? Akida could've mentioned that. But of course, he didn't."

"Well, when Akida was here, he asked us to give that cub to him, but Jamili wouldn't let him have it."

Rubani nodded and said: "Seems like Jamili really can't understand us. He just doesn't know how important it would be for our clan to fulfill our prophecy. It's so hard to find lion cubs or cheetah cubs or any kind of cubs to take them with us. And we need them – or else change is never going to come for our clan."

Chuki thought hard. Jamili said he would never give that lion cub away, especially not to the leopard clan. But when Chuki heard Rubani's words and looked into his eyes, she somehow felt a little bit sorry for him and his clan. But mainly, she felt sorry for herself. This could be her only chance to get rid of that cub which ruined her family life with Jamili and Salina.

After a little while, when Rubani was about to leave, Chuki whispered: "Be here again tonight when it's dark, when Jamili's asleep. I'll be awake. I guess it'll be the best for all of us when I give the lion cub to you."

Rubani smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Chuki. I'll be here." With that, he disappeared into the jungle again.

-xXOXx-

That night, Jamili and Chuki slept leaning against the tree like always, with Nivio lying in Jamili's arms and Salina in Chuki's arms. But Chuki's eyes were still open. Her heart beat like crazy. Finally, the moment would come. She could hear that Jamili, Salina and Nivio were fast asleep. She only had to wait for Rubani to return.

Then, he finally came. He made sure Chuki was really awake and then whispered: "Are they sleeping?"

Chuki nodded and cautiously put sleeping Salina on the ground to get up. Then, she carefully took Nivio from Jamili's arms, making sure none of them woke up. Before she gave the cub to Rubani, the leopard said in a whisper: "I can't thank you enough for giving this cub to me, Chuki. It means so much to me and our clan."

"You're welcome, Rubani," Chuki whispered back. "Now go." With that, she handed Nivio to Rubani, who took the cub by the scruff and then left.

Chuki still stood there and looked after him for a while. With a sigh, she sat down to lean against the tree, cuddled up next to Jamili again and took Salina back into her arms. Of course, Jamili would be sad when the cub was gone. Chuki would do as if she didn't know what happened. She would tell him the cub probably ran away at night. Jamili would definitely go look for the cub in the whole jungle, in vain. But Chuki would comfort him and remind him that he still had her and their little daughter. One day, she thought, he would forget about the cub and be glad to have his family again. He would care more for them again, for his own kind.

**End of Chapter Five**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

DISCLAIMER – I need to point this out: I do not claim the Swahili name "Mbali" I used in this chapter. I also do not claim the Swahili names for the leopards. Why not? I'll explain that in the next chapter. So, you are allowed to use these names (Mbali, Akida, Rubani) without asking me for permission.

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you liked this chapter. So, Jamili's and Chuki's (and Salina's) role in Nivio's life is over. Now, he will be with the leopard clan. A very peculiar leopard clan, as you will see. About the part where Chuki tore off one of Nivio's whiskers: Those of you who have seen my pictures of Nivio at the Lion King Fanart Archive might have noticed that he has 3 whiskers on the right and 2 on the left side of his muzzle. That whisker Chuki tore off never grew again. Okay, my next update should come pretty soon, as I'm on vacation now. At least I hope it'll be soon. 'til then: Please review & tell me what you think! ;) Take care & see you around. :)


	6. The Prophecy of the Leopards

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Alright now, here comes the next chapter! Sorry, it took a little longer than expected. First, my shout out for the reviewers of the last chapter:

**Flickerfur, Kovu115, GreatMarta, Bribles**

Thank you all so much! I'm always so happy to read your nice reviews! A little note to GreatMarta: Yeah, whiskers probably grow back, I think you're right. But remember that this is fanfiction, and not everything has to be realistic. Normally, lions also have more whiskers than they have in TLK or in fanart & fanfics, don't they? ;) Oh, talking about realism: I found out that leopards actually don't live together in clans. But well, the leopards in this story are no real clan. Like Jamili said, they're some kind of "cult". You'll find out why in this chapter.

Okay now, let's get to it! Remember, Nivio is now a cub about the same age as cub Simba in TLK. Hope you enjoy this chapter. It's gonna be a little scary…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Six: The Prophecy of the Leopards**

Rubani had been running through the darkness for a long time. Once he had left the jungle behind him, he took a break and put Nivio on the ground. At that, Nivio opened his eyes and looked around sleepily. He was very confused when he couldn't see the tree or the monkeys any more. All he could see was grass all around him and a strange creature smirking at him.

"Who are you?" Nivio asked weakly. "Where are Mommy and Daddy and Salina?"

At that, Rubani chuckled. Apparently, that little lion cub thought Jamili and Chuki where his parents. That thought amused him. "Don't worry," Rubani finally said. "I'll be your Daddy now. At least until I know if you're _the one_."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll see," Rubani answered. "I really hope you are."

With that, Rubani took Nivio by the scruff and started running again. "No, wait!" Nivio protested. "I don't wanna go with you! I want Mommy and Daddy!"

But Rubani wouldn't listen. He kept running through the darkness of the night. Nivio silently cried as he was taken with him. "Mommy… Daddy… why?"

-xXOXx-

A few hours of running and resting later, Rubani had arrived at his home. His clan lived at the foot of a huge mountain, quite a few miles away from the jungle, northeastern of it. There was a stream of water running down from a source high up in the mountain passing by the place where they lived which was surrounded by trees. In contrast to the jungle, those trees weren't very tall and they didn't grow very close to each other. The leopards slept directly at the foot of the mountain, hiding behind large rocks and in gaps inside the rock walls. But their territory was quite big.

By the time Rubani arrived, it was already dawn. The sun had not appeared at the horizon yet, but there was a beautiful red shine contrasting with the deep blue sky already. Rubani lay down in the grass near his pride and waited for them to wake up. Nivio, who was lying beside him, got more and more scared. He was even too scared to move. Somehow, he thought this was a bad dream. The only thing he wished for was to wake up and find himself lying in Jamili's arms, next to Chuki and Salina again. But it didn't happen.

Soon, Rubani noticed the members of his clan wake up one after another. With a proud smile on his face he stood up, cleared his throat and announced: "I, Rubani, have returned to bring our clan a gift. I hope I have found _the one_, at last. The one who will bring change to our clan."

The others had listened with full attention and excitement. Nivio was just confused and irritated. Somehow, the words he just heard sounded like they had been spoken a thousand times before, like an oath or something similar. But he couldn't think about their meaning, as Rubani suddenly took him by the scruff again and walked closer towards his clan. When he stopped and put Nivio down again, another leopard stepped forward, holding another little cub by the scruff. It was an all black lion cub. Once he stood face to face with Rubani, the other leopard put down the black cub and spoke in the same tone as Rubani: "I, Mkuru, am the current leader of this clan and will prove you wrong. I will prove that _this_ –," he pointed at the black cub, "is the one who will bring change to our clan. Tonight, we will know it."

Before Nivio could get a closer look at the other lion cub, Mkuru walked away with the cub again. But the first thing Nivio noticed was the very scared and frightened look in the other cub's eyes. This really troubled him. He had never seen a creature looking so scared before. Suddenly, he heard a voice and looked up. Another one of the leopards spoke up. It was Akida, and he sounded pretty angry: "Wait a minute, Rubani… I know that lion cub! I've seen it before! You got it from Jamili, didn't you?"

"Actually," Rubani replied calmly, "it was Chuki who gave him to me."

"I can't believe it! It should be me! _I_ should have gotten that cub!"

"Well, Akida, I guess this proves _you_ aren't our born leader. But maybe _I_ am, if this cub is _the one_."

Akida clenched his teeth. He looked as if he intended to attack Rubani. But then he just hissed: "If I didn't know it was of no use, I'd fight you for him."

Rubani smiled in a content way and said: "Fine. Then I guess it's alright. Please excuse me now, I'm going to show _the one_ around our territory."

With that, Rubani turned around and slowly walked towards the trees. At first, Nivio didn't follow, as he was still too confused. But then, Akida fixed an evil gaze on him and whispered in a threatening voice: "You should belong to _me_." At that, Nivio gasped and immediately ran after Rubani.

-xXOXx-

After Rubani had shown him their place, without much conversation, he allowed Nivio to walk around on his own, as long as he could still see him. Nivio decided to search for the black lion cub he had seen before. He really wanted to know what this was all about, how that other cub had come to the leopards – and why it had looked so frightened. Nivio couldn't get the image out of his mind. As he wandered around the territory, he noticed how small the clan was. There were six males, including Akida, Rubani and Mkuru, and only one female, as far as he could see. And they were all constantly avoiding each other. How could they live together like that?

Then, he saw Mkuru sitting near the stream, with the little black cub lying next to him. Obviously, Mkuru hadn't allowed the cub to run around on its own. When Nivio wanted to walk towards them, he noticed another leopard approach Mkuru. Nivio got a little closer, lay down in the grass and listened to what they were saying.

"Mkuru, I haven't been given the chance to find _the one_ for a long time. I humbly ask you as the current leader to let me go this time."

Mkuru smiled and nodded. "Alright, Amiri. You get the chance. But remember the law: Return within seven days at the latest. Then, another one will get the chance again."

"Thank you," Amiri bowed and sped away at once.

Nivio couldn't help but feel more and more confused. He really wanted to know what was going on in this clan. Suddenly, a shadow fell upon him, and when he turned around, he saw Rubani standing behind him. Nivio was startled by this, but Rubani soothed him: "Hey, don't be afraid. I just wanted to ask you if you are hungry."

Slowly, Nivio nodded and then followed Rubani to one of the nearest trees. The female he had seen before was sitting there, eating from a zebra. At a closer look, Nivio also noticed a leopard cub with her. Curiously, he approached them. The cub was a female and visibly taller than him, but obviously no adolescent yet. She didn't look at him while she was eating. Nivio shortly looked at the food in confusion, as he had never eaten meat before. As they all were eating from that zebra, he tried a bit and found it not very tasty. But he was hungry enough to eat more, and while he did so, he kept looking at the young leopardess.

After they had finished their meal, Nivio followed her and asked her: "Can you tell me what's going on here?"

Finally, the young leopardess turned to look at him and sighed: "You have no idea how many others have asked me this question before. And every time, my answer is: I can't tell you."

"But why?"

"Because I mustn't. I'm not allowed to tell anyone, so if they hear us, I'll get killed."

"What? Your parents would allow that?"

"Well, perhaps my Mom wouldn't. And my father… Actually… I don't know who my father is. I never knew him. Mom said, she came here with me because my father had died."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that." After a little while, Nivio asked: "What's your name?"

"Enia. And yours?"

"My name is Mbali… I think."

Enia frowned. "You _think_? Mbali – that's a strange name. It means different. Why would your parents give you a name like this?"

"Well…" Nivio thought a bit. "I _am_ different from my parents. I look totally different, I have more fur, and I walk on four legs, while my parents walked on two legs most of the time."

At that, Enia was very confused. But then, she knew what he probably meant: "I've never seen a lion walk on two legs. The only creatures I know that walk on two legs are monkeys!"

Now, Nivio looked pretty surprised and sad. "What do you mean?"

"I mean they can't be your real parents! Your real parents must be lions, like you are one. So, what happened to your parents?"

"I… don't know…" Suddenly Nivio felt a heavy pain inside his heart, and he started to cry. He couldn't look into Enia's eyes any longer, and so he ran away from her. Near the stream, he lay down to cry. Sure, he had often wondered why Jamili, Chuki and Salina looked so different. But he never thought about the reason why. He never came to think he might have lost his parents. What happened to them? Suddenly, he remembered something, it appeared before his inner eye. It was a gentle face, looking incredibly sad and terrified, moving further and further away from him. He heard a female angsty voice crying: "NOOOO!" It was the face of his mother.

"Mommy…," Nivio sobbed to himself. "Daddy… what happened to you? Why am I all alone? And if my name is not Mbali… what _is_ my name?" But no one could answer him these questions.

-xXOXx-

For the rest of the day, Nivio didn't talk to anyone, not even to Enia. All he could do was lie around and cry and think. He desperately tried to remember his parents, but there was no memory of them at all. Only this one vague image of his mother's face. That night, his first night with the leopards, he lay next to Rubani behind a rock, and he almost couldn't sleep. Once he finally did, he was suddenly startled. Was that a scream? Nivio looked all about him. Rubani was gone. And so were the others. Where were they, in the middle of the night? Nivio got up on his paws and tried to find them.

As he walked further away from the foot of the mountain, he noticed something behind the trees at the horizon. There was a strange kind of glowing. His heart beat fast, his fear grew. But he carefully went on. Suddenly, when he had passed the trees, there was some kind of an abyss. He hadn't seen this large pit the whole day long, not even when Rubani had shown him around the territory. Obviously, he was beyond the borders. But the strange glowing came from down there. And down in that pit, they all were standing: Mkuru with the black lion cub, Rubani, the other males, the female – all but Enia. That glowing came from a fire, around which they were standing. Cautiously, Nivio lay down and looked over the edge of the abyss. At that moment, he heard Mkuru's voice.

"Now is the moment we will find out if I, Mkuru, have found _the one_," Mkuru spoke to the others. "If he passes the test, he truly is the one who will bring change to our clan. Now, go."

Nivio could not believe his own eyes when he beheld what happened next. The black cub, trembling with fear, slowly stepped towards the large fire. When it looked back at Mkuru with terror in its eyes, Mkuru extended his claws and growled in a threatening way: "Jump!" The cub turned its head back to the fire, gulped, closed its eyes… and jumped as high as it could. But it wasn't high enough…

Terrified, Nivio jumped up and gasped, suppressing a scream. Then suddenly, he felt a paw over his mouth. Enia was standing next to him. "Shhh…," she whispered. "Come back with me and don't make any kind of noise." Carefully, she took her paw off him and then, they ran back to the foot of the mountain, as fast as they could. After they had caught their breath again, Nivio was still too traumatized to talk by what he just saw. Enia couldn't find words for a while, either.

"Others often say our clan is a cult," she finally said. "And I think they are right."

"What… what is a cult?" Nivio asked with an incredible weakness in his voice.

"That's hard to explain. They… believe in things and do things that aren't right. No one can understand this… I think they don't even understand themselves." She paused for a short time and then sighed: "I had to swear by my life never to tell anyone about what they believe. But I want to explain to you what you've seen. You have to promise me you won't tell them I did!"

After Nivio had made his promise, she explained: "A few years ago, six male leopards had met in this territory for the first time. Each of them wanted to own it. So, they started to fight. But there was no winner and no loser. They faught for days, or even for weeks. But then they found out they were all equally strong, no one would ever win or lose, nor would any of them give up. So, they had to find another way to decide a winner. One night, when they wanted to come up with a task, there was a heavy thunderstorm. Suddenly, a flash of lightning hit a lonely tree that was standing in that pit over there. There was a huge fire in that pit, and so they said: The one who can jump over the fire safely will be the owner of the territory. But again, all of them succeeded. At that moment – at least that's what they say – the ghost of another leopard appeared inside that fire. They believed it was the previous owner of the territory. He told them they had to stay together as a clan and find out who was their born leader. The others told him they had been trying for such a long time. At that, the ghost answered: 'If you can't find a leader, another big cat will.' Then came the rain, the fire disappeared and so did the ghost. After that, the six leopards changed their names. From now on, they called themselves Akida, Rubani, Mkuru, Amiri, Chifu and Hakimu. Each name means leader or something similar to it. Now, they tried to find other big cats to join their clan and do the fire test for them. But no adult big cats would join them. One day, one of them found a cheetah cub that had lost its parents. This cub was happy to join their clan. But of course, when it had to do the fire test, it died. And so, they decided just to look for lonely cubs to fulfill their prophecy – for _the one_."

Nivio was totally shocked by that story, he was even too shocked to cry. How could anyone believe in such terrible things? How could anyone be so cruel? Enia looked away at the trees. Tears welled up in her eyes as she continued: "I don't know how they always make fire, though. I wasn't even supposed to know about their cult, but one night, I watched them. And when they found out, I had to swear not to tell anyone, especially not the other cubs, or they'd kill me. If my mother and I had known about all this, we would have never joined their clan!"

Enia suddenly stopped her sobbing as she noticed the other leopards slowly returning. "Quick, lay down behind that rock again and pretend you're sleeping! They mustn't know we're awake!"

As fast as they could, they lay down at their sleeping spots and closed their eyes. But Nivio opened them once again and whispered: "Enia… you have to get me outta here! Please!"

**End of Chapter Six**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

DISCLAIMER – As I said, you are allowed to use the names Mbali, Akida, Rubani, Mkuru, Amiri, Chifu and Hakimu without asking me for permission, I do not claim them. But all the other characters' names appearing in this story (except for names appearing in the Lion King movies, of course) belong to me.

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well now, I hope you liked this chapter. It was harder to write than I thought. I've read many fanfics about lions, cheetahs or leopards being evil tyrants, but I think I've never read about them having cults. So why not? This idea had come to me pretty early while thinking up this story. Okay now, this was a long chapter. I don't know when chapter 7 will be completed, but I hope soon. So, be patient and take care! See you around. :)


	7. Escape

AUTHOR'S NOTE – It's me again, with a brand-new chapter! But first, like always, here's my shout out for the reviewers of chapter 6:

**Kovu115, Nala5, Kovu 01, GreatMarta, Bribles, Hackage Returns**

Thank you, thank you, thank you! It's so great to hear you like my story! There're quite a few reviews I'd like to comment a little bit.  
To **Nala5:** It's great to get a review from you again – don't worry, I understand very well how busy you must be, preparing for college. Good luck and lots of success for you!  
To **Kovu 01:** Thanks for your nice compliments! I promise I will read your stories soon – right after I uploaded this chaper! They sound really interesting! I just haven't found the time to do so yet.  
To **GreatMarta:** Yeah, I know, I really got some kind of a sick fantasy here, lol. I was really considering not to write about such a cult, but then I thought: There must be some good reasons why Nivio is traumatized, why he doesn't talk about his past and why he prefered to live on his own (until he met Lina & Takita, that is). So, I just couldn't leave out such things, as horrible as they are.  
To **Hackage Returns:** I'm really happy to hear you liked TLK3D and this story so much. As for the waiting… I'm really sorry, but I simply can't write my chapters faster. If you were a student at university, like me, and you had so much work to do for it, you wouldn't have much time to write a fanfiction, either. If I updated my stories every day, all the chapters would only be about one sentence or a few paragraphs long. Wouldn't be great, would it? Or they would lack quality immensely. My stories are like they are, because I take my time to write them. Sometimes, the chapters take more time than I think they would, but I can't help it. I'm sorry if you don't like to wait, but I think it will be worth the wait.

On a last note, **Kovu115** suggested I could include a "Previously on Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner" section to sum up what happened in the last chapter(s) at the beginning of each chapter. I think I might try that, though that means, the author's notes at the beginning will get even longer. But maybe it will be easier for you to remember what happened that way. Okay, so this time, there will be a short summary of all the chapters until now.

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, the son of Roho and Kinja, two former Outlanders who joined Simba's Pride after the war, was lost in the jungle when his parents were attacked by a gorilla and he fell down a waterfall. He was only an infant then, but he survived, because Jamili, a monkey, found him and took him in. While he enjoyed caring for Nivio, Jamili's wife Chuki didn't like the little lion, because she thought Jamili neglected her and their daughter Salina. So when she got the chance, she gave Nivio to the leopard Rubani. He lives together with his clan near a mountain, and this clan believes in a strange thing: They want to find a leader among them by searching other big cats' cubs and letting them jump over a huge fire for them. Nivio secretly watches such a "fire test" that night and sees how another lion cub dies. He begs Enia, the only cub in the leopard clan, to help him escape, so he won't end up doing the "fire test" for Rubani…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Seven: Escape**

The morning after, Nivio felt totally tired. He hadn't slept very well that night. It was very hard for him to look into the leopards' eyes and not show his fear. When all the leopards had gone to guard the borders of the territory or to find food, Enia finally approached Nivio again. She didn't want the others to see them talking together, because they might suspect she told him about their cult. This time, not even Rubani watched them, as he was taking a stroll around the borders.

When Enia sat down next to Nivio, there were a few moments of silence first. But then she started: "After the other cub… failed the fire test, Rubani was pronounced as the new leader, I think. And the law says the current leader must inspect the borders himself every morning. Afterwards, he takes the cub who he claims to be _the one_ with him and doesn't let it leave his side. So, this time of the day will be the only time the two of us get to talk."

At that, Nivio was startled. "I'm not allowed to leave his side any more? The whole day long? Then I can only escape at night!"

"But only if your escape doesn't take longer than one minute."

"How do you mean?"

"Rubani guards your sleep. When one of them finds a cub, he makes sure it doesn't run away. They stay awake every night – of course, they fall asleep from time to time, but only for a few seconds or a minute or so."

Now, Nivio looked more desperate than ever. "Then, how could I have one chance to escape?"

"I don't know," Enia sighed. She thought for a little while. "I guess you'd have to think of something to make Rubani feel exhausted. He has to sleep or else you don't have a chance."

A few minutes of silence passed again. Nivio thought hard, but no idea came to him. All he could think was he had to escape before Amiri, the leopard that had left the day before, found another cub. For when that happened, Nivio would have to do the "fire test" the following night, and he knew he wouldn't make it. This thought made him tremble with fear. Suddenly, he remembered that little black cub that had died in the "fire test" the night before. He remembered the fear and terror in the cub's eyes.

Turning to Enia again, he asked: "That other lion cub… when I first saw it yesterday morning, it looked so frightened and scared. Did it know about the cult?"

Enia shook her head. "No," she replied. "I haven't told him, and I think he hasn't watched a fire test, either. I think it's the atmosphere in this clan. Sooner or later, every cub they find gets scared by the way the members of this clan act and talk. When my mother and I joined them, I was pretty confused and a little scared after a while as well. Even before I had watched that fire test for the first time."

Nivio wanted to ask her something else, but Enia got up on her paws and whispered, turning around: "Rubani's coming back. If you succeed at making him sleepy tonight, wake me up. Then I'll help you."

With that, she slowly went away. Nivio looked all around him until he saw Rubani approaching from the border as well. Again, he thought about what he could do to exhaust Rubani.

But before he came to think of something, Rubani was standing in front of him, smirking: "Alright, the borders are safe. Now, you come with me and never leave my side. I wouldn't want to lose a special cub like you."

"What's so special about me?" Nivio asked him, acting surprised.

"Well… you are _the one_, I'm certain of that. I'm convinced you are going to make me the eternal leader of this clan, when the time has come to prove it."

"What do you mean, prove it?"

Rubani smirked once again. "You're one curious little cub! All I can say is: You'll see when the time has come."

Of course, Nivio was not surprised by this answer. Somehow, he wondered why the leopards only did the "fire test" when another one of them had found another cub. But it was probably because there wouldn't be any leader if they did it right away and there was no other cub around. And he should be glad about it, because if they did the "fire tests" right away, he would already be dead by now.

"Well now," Rubani said after a while. "Let's wait until Mkuru finds some food for us."

-xXOXx-

All Rubani and Nivio did now was walk around the territory side by side. They hardly talked a few words. About one hour later, Mkuru came back from his hunt and he brought a big antilope with him. He was pretty frustrated, as just until the night before, he had been the leader of the leopard clan. And now, he had to follow Rubani's orders and hunt for him. But fortunately, Rubani allowed him to eat a little piece of the prey himself. Then, Rubani and Nivio ate as much as they could. The rest of the antilope was for the other members of the clan, but only if Rubani allowed them to have something. The first one who was allowed to leave his post at the border and eat for a while was Akida. Again, Akida fixed an angry and jealous gaze upon Nivio as he passed by. He still couldn't get used to the thought that Rubani had brought the lion cub he himself had found first.

Rubani and Nivio soon lay down beside the stream. It was obvious that Rubani didn't want to do pretty much, so he wouldn't get too tired at night. As Nivio was lying in the grass near Rubani, looking around, he spotted Enia and her mother eating from the antilope. Apparently, the two of them didn't have to follow any orders, except for the orders never to leave the territory or to tell anyone else about the cult. After all, they didn't really belong to the clan, they just had decided to live with them. And this, without them knowing, had been a decision for ever. After they had eaten enough, Enia's mother lay down near a tree and watched Enia as she was hunting a butterfly. This sight made Nivio feel a little sad. It reminded him of how he used to play with Salina, and how Jamili and Chuki had watched them. Well, actually, only Jamili had watched them, with a smile on his face. Chuki had always frowned and looked away quite often when he and Salina had played together. Nivio sighed at these memories. But suddenly, he gasped. He just got an idea.

Nivio stood up and, with a happy smile on his face, turned around to face Rubani. Rubani looked pretty puzzled when he noticed Nivio's smile. "What is it?" Rubani asked.

With a cute smile, Nivio asked back: "Will you play with me? Pleeeease!"

Now, Rubani was completely confused: "Wh-what? Me? Play with you?"

"It's so boring here! I really want to play!"

"Well… I don't know. You know, it's a long time ago I played with any one."

"I saw that cub playing," Nivio said pointing at Enia. "So, I wanna play, too. If you don't want to play with me, I can go play with her."

He started walking towards Enia, but Rubani commanded: "No! You stay here! Remember, you never leave my side!"

"You can come with me and watch us, can't you?"

Rubani hesitated. "No… I don't think it's a good idea… for a lion cub and a leopard cub to play together."

"Why not?" Nivio asked, but of course he knew that Rubani just wanted to keep him away from Enia.

"Well… okay, I guess I can play with you, if you want," Rubani finally said and stood up. "So, what do you wanna play?"

"Let's play hide-and-seek!"

"No, you shouldn't leave my side. What else would you like to play?"

"Um… then we'll play tag. You have to run after me!"

"Oh – okay, but just don't run outside the borders of our territory!" And more in a whisper to himself, Rubani added: "Boy, no other cub has ever asked his owner to play with him…"

Then, Nivio touched Rubani's shoulder and shouted: "Tag! You're it!" With that, he ran towards the trees.

"Wait, not so fast!" Rubani called after him and followed him as fast as he could. The other leopards, who noticed them one after another, all watched in confusion.

-xXOXx-

The whole day long, Nivio had been trying to make Rubani play with him again, but he had only succeeded one more time. After the first time they had played tag, Rubani was already totally exhausted. He really wasn't used to this. For the next few hours, he had refused to play again, but later in the afternoon, Nivio could persuade him to play another short game of tag with him. At night, Nivio had closed his eyes immediately after he had laid down next to Rubani. Fortunately, he wasn't very exhausted himself. But still, he hoped he'd stay awake long enough. His heart was beating too fast to sleep anyways. He was extremely nervous and frightened. He didn't want to open his eyes in the wrong moment, when Rubani was still awake.

After about half an hour had passed, Nivio slowly turned around to face Rubani and opened his eyes a little bit. And indeed, Rubani seemed to be sleeping. Nivio waited for another few moments – Rubani didn't move. Carefully, Nivio fully opened his eyes and stood up. Again, he waited, his heart pounding like crazy. But at this moment, Rubani was really sleeping. Nivio was relieved. It was still dangerous for him, though. Cautiously, Nivio went over to where Enia and her mother were sleeping. He poked her shoulder and whispered into her ear: "Enia. Enia, wake up."

Enia quietly groaned and turned around. Her eyes fluttered open and she asked sleepily: "What is it?"

Nivio shushed her: "Shh… Don't wake them up. You wanted to help me."

After a little while, Enia finally knew what was going on. She nodded and got up on her paws. Cautiously, she and Nivio made their way through the sleeping members of the clan and away from them. Enia led him towads the stream. Suddenly, a strange feeling overcame Nivio. Somehow, looking at the water streaming underneath him made him feel uncomfortable, and he didn't know why.

Enia whispered: "This is the only way to escape where they can't follow your trail. I don't know where this will bring you, though."

"Back to the jungle maybe?"

"No, I don't think so. The jungle is southwestern of here, this stream probably goes to the Northwest."

"Can't you come with me, Enia?"

Enia gasped, but then she shook her head. "No, I can't. I can't leave my mother behind with them, do you understand?"

Nivio nodded. He wanted to say something, but suddenly, he and Enia froze. There was a scream from further away: "No! Where is he? Where is _the one_? And where's Enia, that little brat?" It was Rubani – he woke up!

Almost panicking, Enia said: "Quick! You must go now! Or they'll get you!"

"But…" Nivio had tears in his eyes. "Won't they kill you if they find out you helped me?"

"I'll tell them I was trying to hold you back. Don't worry about me! Go!"

But Nivio still didn't move. "Enia… thank you so much! I'll never forget what you did for me. Thanks for…"

"There's no time, go!" Without warning, Enia pushed Nivio into the stream.

After a few seconds under water, Nivio came to the surface, coughing, trying to breathe. The water was streaming very fast, it was a great effort for Nivio to keep his head above the water. When he first got over the shock, he turned his head into the direction from where he had come. The figures on the shore were becoming smaller and smaller to him. Apparently, Rubani had reached Enia by now. Nivio really hoped for her she wouldn't get hurt or even killed. Words could not express how thankful he was. Somehow, he felt like he hadn't really thanked her. And somehow, he thought he would be going to miss her. It was sad he had to leave her, as they would have been good friends. But not in this clan. There was no friendship in this clan, and no safety.

Unfortunately, he didn't know if he was going to be safe now. At this very moment, he was taken away by a very fast stream in the middle of the night. And he didn't know where this journey would be ending. All he could do was hope…

**End of Chapter Seven**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Okay, as my author's note at the beginning had been very long already, I'm gonna keep this short. I just wanted to say: Please review and be patient until the next chapter will be uploaded! See you around! ;)


	8. A new home at last?

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Sorry, it took a little longer again. But here I am, with a new chapter of "Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner"! Here's my shout-out for chapter 7 first:

**Hackage Returns, Kovu115, GreatMarta, Sun Rei Lioness, Bribles, Kiara32**

Thank you so much, all of you! I'm so flattered by all the nice things you say about my story! A special thanks to **Sun Rei Lioness **& **Kiara32 **who reviewed all the chapters they missed! That's so nice of you, my friends – thank you so much! Now, I'm gonna reply to some of your reviews again shortly:  
To **Hackage Returns:** I hope you received my reply to your review. But in case you didn't: I wanna assure you, I didn't feel offended in any way by your review, and I'm sorry if I sounded rude or something. I just had the feeling you were very sad about the fact I don't update sooner, so I wanted to explain why. I hope there are no more misunderstandings now. ;) As I said, I'm very glad to hear you like this story that much (and my previous story, too), and I'm always looking forward to receiving reviews from you!  
To **GreatMarta:** Hm… why does none of the six male leopards want to get the female… good question. But there's a pretty simple answer to it: They _would_ try to get her. But if they tried, the same thing would happen as when they wanted to get the territory: Whenever they'd try to fight over the female, none of them would win or lose. So, first they want to find a leader, and then, this leader will get the female!  
To **Bribles **& **Kiara32:** Well, I'm afraid Enia will no longer play any part in this story. But I can tell you, she doesn't get killed by Rubani. Of course, he's suspicious, but Enia gets him to believe she wanted to hold Nivio back from escaping.

Okay, now, a short summary of the last chapter and some of the previous ones, and then on with the story. Hope you enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – After Nivio was separated from both his parents and the monkey couple who took him in, he came to a clan of leopards. This clan has some kind of a cult: They want to find a leader among them by searching other big cats' cubs and letting them jump over a huge fire for them. Enia, the only cub in the leopard clan, decides to help Nivio escape. She tells him that Rubani, the leopard who "found" him, always watches Nivio, even at night. So, Nivio thinks of a way to make Rubani feel exhausted: He asks him to play tag with him all day long. That night, Rubani falls asleep, and so Nivio wakes up Enia, and she leads him to the stream flowing nearby. Suddenly, Rubani wakes up and almost catches them, but Enia throws Nivio into the stream, and now he's on another journey without knowing to where…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Eight: A new home at last?**

Hours passed, landscapes went rushing by Nivio's half-closed eyes in the darkness, and there seemed to be no end. Nivio was still taken downstream, feeling cold, wet and powerless against the water. His feelings of relief, as he was no longer in the fangs of this eerie leopard clan, had faded away long ago. All he could think of now was when this journey down this cold and fast stream of water would finally have an end. The current was way too strong for him to just swim towards the shore and get out, as the stream was getting wider as well. By now, it was a river already. Nivio felt weaker and weaker with every second. Soon, he thought, he would drown. Was it better to die out here in this cold river than being burned? It was impossible for him to find an answer to that question. He couldn't even think properly any longer. The cold of the water pricked him terribly. All he could think of was the pain and being near death.

It seemed like an eternity or two had passed, and Nivio was already near losing his consciousness – but suddenly he felt like he hit something. He didn't comprehend what happened right away, but he was stopped! Was it the end of the river? He could still feel the water around him, and there was no ground beneath his paws. Slowly, he managed to open his eyes and look at the thing that had stopped him. It was some kind of a dyke, consisting of many branches. With all the strength that was was left in him, Nivio held on to the branches and pulled himself towards the shore. Once he finally reached it, he collapsed to the ground and gasped for air. He almost felt like he couldn't breathe any more. His chest hurt like crazy, and he trembled because of the cold. After a while, he started coughing heavily. He felt like he was coughing his life out.

After a few minutes, his coughing slowly ceased. But he was still lying there, trembling, unable to move. With great effort, he managed to turn his head to one side. His vision was blurred, but he noticed it was already dawning by now. Only a few seconds passed until Nivio lost his consciousness.

-xXOXx-

The sun began to rise, birds started singing, and the sound of the water was still heard. But apart from that, one could also hear a laughter from further away. A cheetah cub came running towards the river happily.

"Kuoni!" a female voice called after him. It was the cheetah cub's mother. "Don't run so far away!"

"Oh come on, Mom!" Kuoni answered. "I wanna play near the river!"

With that, he ran along and started giggling. When he had reached the river, he stopped and wandered alongside the shore, looking for a nice place to play. But suddenly, his giggling stopped and he gasped.

"Mom!" he cried. "Mom, look what I found here!"

Seconds later, Kuoni's mother had reached him. Kuoni looked at her with a worried and disturbed expression. Soon, his mother knew why, as she noticed the unconscious lion cub lying at her son's paws.

"Mom, do you know who that is? And what's wrong with him?" Kuoni asked.

His mother took a closer look at the cub now. "It's a lion cub, sweety," she replied and put her ear close to the cub's mouth. "He's still breathing, but I think he is sick." She touched the cub's forehead with her paw. "He's cold. He must've been taken here by the river. I wonder where his parents are."

As she looked all around her for a while, Kuoni said: "We should help him, right, Mom?"

His mother nodded at him. "Yeah, you're right, we should," she answered. "Let's take him home. You can play later, okay?"

"Okay," Kuoni replied and silently followed her, as she took the unconscious Nivio by the scruff and went back to from where they had come.

-xXOXx-

_Meanwhile, in the Pridelands…_

The sun had been up for a while already, and the lionesses of the Pridelands just went on their hunt. Just two lionesses of the hunting party weren't with them: Kiara, the new Queen of the Pridelands. She was staying with her two infant cubs Lina and Ari, who were four weeks old by now. And Kinja, Roho's mate. She had just given birth to a daughter that morning. Kovu and Kiara had been there to help. But the birth went pretty easy, so they didn't even need to get Rafiki. Now, they were all looking at the newborn cub in awe.

Roho was the first one to speak: "Kinja, she's beautiful. She looks so much like you." Indeed, the cub had the same sand-colored fur as Kinja and lighter muzzle, belly and pawtips. Her fur was just a little brighter that Kinja's, and while Kinja had waterblue eyes, the cub's eyes were emerald green, like Roho's.

Kinja nodded. "Yes, she does. But she has your eyes."

Now, Kiara spoke up: "She really is beautiful. Congratulations, you two!"

Kinja and Roho smiled back at her, and Kovu said as well: "Congratulations! She's pretty!" After a while, he asked: "How are you gonna call her?"

The two of them thought for a while. "How do you like the name Takita?" Roho suggested then.

Kinja repeated the name: "Takita. Yes, it sounds nice. That'll be her name."

Then, Kovu smiled: "Great! And have you thought about our suggestion? Would you like Takita to be betrothed to our Ari?"

Kiara glared at Kovu for a short time. She was still angry at him, because he had decided over her head that Ari should be heir to the throne instead of Lina. But Kinja smiled back at Kovu and answered: "Yes, we would like that."

"Fantastic!" Kovu said. "Okay, we'll talk more about that later. Now, get some rest. I'll have to go check the borders now." With that, he went out of the den.

Kiara said: "I'm gonna go to the waterhole, so you can be alone for a while, okay?"

"Okay," Kinja replied. As soon as Kiara was out of their sight, Kinja and Roho looked at their little daughter again. Kinja sighed happily: "Our little Takita…"

"Do you remember what you first said when we found out you were pregnant with her?" Roho suddenly asked.

Kinja nodded: "Of course I do." They both remembered that day very well…

_Roho nervously went back and forth near the waterhole. It had been about four weeks since he and Kinja had returned to the Pridelands, and now Kinja had been feeling weak since the other day. No one knew what was up with her, so she went to see Rafiki that day in the early morning. Roho was pretty worried about her. He hadn't seen her in such a condition for a long time. He only hoped she was going to be okay._

_It seemed like an eternity, but finally, Kinja and Kiara, who had accompanied her, returned to the waterhole. Roho stopped his pacing around immediately and looked at them with questioning and worried eyes. While Kiara had a smile on her face, Roho couldn't place Kinja's look at all. She seemed to be surprised or worried or maybe both._

"_What did Rafiki tell you?" Roho finally asked his mate. "Are you fine?"_

_Kinja still didn't lift her head up and looking up at Roho, she replied: "Yes, Roho, I'm fine. It's just… I'm… I'm pregnant."_

_Roho gasped in surprise, while Kiara made a joyous sound, beaming: "Isn't that wonderful?"_

_After a few seconds, Roho snapped out of it and stuttered: "Yeah… yes… of course it is!"_

"_I'm so happy for you two!" Kiara said and hugged Kinja, who was pretty surprised at that. "So, your cub is going to be born in about four months, just four weeks after mine!"_

"_Yeah, I… guess so…," Kinja said._

"_This is so great!" Kiara continued. "Well, I'm a little nervous, though, it's going to be my first cub. Are you nervous, too?"_

_Kinja hesitated. But then she answered: "I'm not sure. Maybe a little."_

"_Yeah, but it's so exciting! Our first cubs! They're gonna be best friends, Kinja, just like we are. Maybe they can even be betrothed. Would you like that?"_

"_You mean… to become future King or Queen, together with your cub?" Kinja asked._

"_That'd be nice," Roho said. "Don't you think, darling?"_

"_Um, let me think about it, okay?"_

"_Oh, it would be wonderful. I hope you'll say yes." After a while, Kiara said: "I'm gonna go look for Kovu now to tell him the great news! Or do you want to tell him yourself?"_

_Kinja replied: "Uh… no, it's okay. You can tell him."_

"_Okay, then I'll see you guys later. Congratulations again!" With that, Kiara smiled at them once again and went looking for Kovu._

_When she was gone, Kinja sat down and sighed. Roho sat down beside her and put one of his paws on hers for comfort. Before he could say anything, Kinja started: "It was quite hard for me not to cry when Kiara thought it was going to be our first cub…"_

"_I know what you mean," Roho agreed. "But I think it's better not to tell her, like you said. She's so happy, it would only make her worried or she might even feel like hurting us."_

"_You're right," she said and took his paw in hers. After a little while, she looked at the ground and sighed again: "Roho… what if I can't love this cub… like I loved Nivio?"_

_Roho looked at her in surprise. Kinja added: "Or what if the cub reminds me of Nivio? And just looking at it would make me cry?"_

_Roho thought for a while, then he nuzzled his mate and sighed: "Kinja, dear, it's not good to think like that. It's hard, but we have to get over Nivio. We'll have to get used to the thought… we're never going to see him again. We've searched for him everywhere back in the jungle… every place that river could have taken him to. We did everything we could, and there's nothing more we can do now. Except for starting over and love our new cub."_

"_You mean we should forget Nivio ever existed?" Kinja nearly cried._

"_No, of course not!" Roho replied. "We shouldn't ever forget him. We should remember the wonderful moments we had with him, but forget about… the bad times. You see?"_

_Sobbing a little bit, Kinja nodded. "Okay," she said. "I hope we can do that."_

Now, Kinja shook her head at the memory. She looked at little Takita, then at Roho and said: "I'll never forget our Nivio. But of course, I'm gonna love our little Takita as well."

"Me too. I love you, Kinja," Roho said, nuzzling her.

Kinja nuzzled back, saying: "I love you, too."

-xXOXx-

_Back to Nivio and the cheetahs…_

It was some kind of a little savanna, not nearly as wide or full of grass as the Pridelands, where the cheetahs had taken Nivio to. There were no huge rock formations like Pride Rock, either, but for a cheetah and her cub, it was okay to live there. Under a small tree, she was now lying, holding the lion cub in her arms to warm up his cold and wet little body. Kuoni was looking at Nivio all the time, waiting for the lion to move. And then, finally, Nivio opened his eyes.

"He wakes up," Kuoni said in an excited way.

Nivio blinked several times and looked all around him. "Where… where am I? What happened?" he asked in a weak and confused voice.

"We found you at the shore of the river," Kuoni's mother answered.

As Nivio managed to look up at her, he gasped. At first, he almost feared he might be back with the leopards. But at a closer look, he noticed they weren't leopards, so he asked: "Who are you?"

"We're cheetahs. My name is Nakemi, and this is my son Kuoni." At that, Nivio took a closer look at the cheetah cub.

"I guess you're lucky we found you," Kuoni said. "My mom says you're sick, and if we hadn't found you, you would have died."

"Kuoni!" Nakemi scolded him. "Don't scare him!" Turning to Nivio, she said: "You're okay now. We'll help you."

"Thanks for helping me." After he had said that, Nivio had to cough again.

When his coughing had ceased, Nakemi asked him: "What happened to you? And where are your parents?"

Nivio hesitated. He didn't know what to tell her, as he didn't know anything about his parents, his real parents, himself. Thinking about this, he almost started to cry. Suppressing the tears, he decided just to answer the first question: "I… I escaped from the leopards. They had a cult, and they wanted to kill me."

Nakemi and Kuoni gasped at that. Thinking for a little while, Nakemi replied: "I believe I've heard of them. They must be cruel…"

"Yes, they are," Nivio said weakly and sobbed. He could no longer hold back his tears at the memory of that poor lion cub that had died in the flames… and of Enia. Then, he coughed a little bit again.

After a while, Kuoni asked him: "What's your name?"

Nivio opened his mouth to say something. He almost wanted to say his name was Mbali. But then he remembered what Enia had said to him, that this couldn't be his real name. Looking at the ground, he sighed: "I… don't have a name."

Nakemi noticed the sadness in his eyes. Though she was really wondering why that poor lion cub didn't say anything about his parents and why he didn't know his own name, she decided not to ask any more questions. She just smiled and said: "It's okay. You can tell us everything else later. First, you have to recover and regain your strength."

Kuoni cuddled up next to his mother, still keeping his eyes on Nivio. He was no longer in the mood for playing. Nivio lay down his head on Nakemi's paws and closed his eyes. He really needed to rest now. He was feeling very sick and exhausted, and even though his chest still hurt when he was breathing, he was glad to be alive. A few hours ago, he feared he might die in the river. But now, he was safe. And maybe, he was going to find a new home here, at last. With this thought on his mind, he fell asleep…

**End of Chapter Eight**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I really wanted to write a little bit about Roho and Kinja in the Pridelands to create a timeline and a connection with TLK3D. And the flashback (this time only marked by using _italics_) was a good way to convey Kinja's and Roho's feelings, I think. That way, I also avoided writing more scenes "away" from Nivio. So, I hope you liked it. On a further note, I'm not gonna be here from August 30th until September 4th. And once I'm back, I'm gonna have to do more work for university as well. But I hope it's not gonna take too long to write the next chapter. Just be patient, like always. I'm looking forward to receiving your reviews! Take care & see you around. :)


	9. A Land Too Beautiful to Describe

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Oh man, I feel so bad for not updating earlier. But you know – or you don't know –, how many things I had to do again for university. It's getting more and more interesting, but more and more stressful as well. Anyways, now I'm here with a new chapter and my shoutout for the people reviewing chapter 8:

**Kovu115, Bribles, GreatMarta, Hackage Returns, Sun Rei Lioness, Kiara32, The Ligerion Emperor**

Wow, thank you all so much! It's always so great to get your nice reviews, and I also love to get reviews from people who are new to the story! A few things I want to say in reply of your reviews:  
To **The Ligerion Emperor:** It's wonderful to hear you like my story so far! I'm really flattered by your kind words and by the fact you faved me and my story. Thank you SO much. :) I hope you like the chapters still to come as well and you won't get frustrated if I don't update for a while.  
To **Kovu115:** You asked me if Nivio will ever know his name. I guess you'll see. Or, if you read my other story "The Lion King 3: Don't Defy Destiny" – which I think you have, as far as I remember –, you know if he does… ;)

So much for now. Once again, here comes a little summary of what happened the last time, and then, straight to chapter 9. Enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio was able to escape from certain death in an eerie leopard clan, with the help of his only friend, the leopard cub Enia. His journey downstream a river ended when he was stopped by a dyke and collapsed at the shore. He had caught a terrible cold in the water, but fortunately, a cheetah named Nakemi and her son Kuoni found him and took him in. At the same time, in the Pridelands, Nivio's mother Kinja gave birth to her daughter Takita. Kinja and her mate Roho, thinking they had lost Nivio back when he was just an infant, are very happy about Takita's birth, though they would never forget about their son. Meanwhile, Nivio wakes up in Nakemi's paws who tells him she and Kuoni will take care of him…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Nine: A Land Too Beautiful to Describe**

The first few days in his new home were hard for Nivio. The pain in his chest when he breathed and his coughing were pretty heavy, and he felt so weak. Nakemi did all she could for him, and when she was out hunting, Kuoni cuddled up next to Nivio in their hiding place to keep him warm. The cheetah cub was very sad about Nivio's bad condition, though he didn't even know his name or where he came from. Nivio was hardly ever able to speak a few words, because of his weakness, and when he did, he didn't say anything about himself. But for now, Kuoni decided to let him recover first, as his mother had said. Then, they would have all the time in the world to get to know each other.

After about one week, Nivio started feeling much better. His coughing was no longer that bad and the pain in his chest had finally ceased. He was even able to walk around again for the first time. Of course, he still wasn't strong enough to cover long distances, but Nakemi and Kuoni could show him around the little savanna they lived in a bit. There were many small trees and bushes, a few herds, like antelope and zebra, and the river that had taken Nivio there supplied them all with enough water. It was a nice place for the small number of creatures living there.

That evening, when the sun was slowly creeping lower on the horizon, Nakemi started a little chat with Nivio: "Do you like it here, little one?"

Nivio looked at the setting sun, blinking at the brightness, then back at Nakemi and shrugged: "I guess it's quite nice."

Nakemi nodded and said: "I hope you'll feel at home here soon. Maybe it's not perfect, but as soon as you regained your strength again, I'm sure you're gonna like it."

Nivio smiled at her shortly, but then looked down at the ground again sadly. Nakemi frowned at this sight. She really worried about this little lion cub. At first, it was only his bad health condition, but there was something else that troubled her. It was obvious that this cub had been through a lot. He was all by himself, without parents or a pride, he never even knew his own name, and he spoke of a clan of leopards who attempted to kill him. She could take care of him, like she cared for her son Kuoni. But could she really help him?

After a while, Nakemi carefully asked: "Um, I don't know how to ask you this… I don't want to say anything wrong. But… I really wonder… how come you are all alone out here? What happened to your parents?"

The sadness in Nivio's eyes grew. He continued to stare at the ground and sighed. Tears welled up in his eyes at the only vague memory of his mother he had, the horror in her eyes, quickly disappearing. He couldn't know what had happened back then, as he had been just a few weeks old at that time. But he knew, it was something terrible. And the next thing he really remembered was being taken away from his foster parents Jamili and Chuki, after he had been living with them and their little daughter happily. Somehow, he didn't want to tell Nakemi about the monkeys that had taken him in. But what should he tell her? He really had no idea.

When Nivio didn't answer for quite a long time, Nakemi tried again: "Where have you been living before you escaped from that leopard clan?"

Nivio gulped and finally looked up at her, as the first tear rolled down from one of his eyes. In a shaking voice, he just said: "I don't remember. I can't remember anything."

Nakemi sighed. She almost started crying herself when she saw him like this. She softly drew him closer with her paw to comfort him. Nivio rubbed his cheek against her fur, letting his tears run down.

After a while, Kuoni, who had been silently sitting next to Nivio the whole time, spoke up: "Mom? If he can't remember his name, maybe _we_ should give him a name, huh?"

Suddenly, Nivio turned around and sobbed: "I don't want a new name." _Not again_, he added in his thoughts.

A little surprised at his reaction, Kuoni asked: "Well, but how can I call you then?"

Nivio sniffed and sunk his head. He almost wanted to suggest the name "Mbali". But it would only remind him of his foster father Jamili who had given him this name. And the cheetahs would probably want to know how he thought of it. He had to come up with something else.

Before he could do so, Kuoni suggested: "Maybe we can just call you 'Lion'."

"I don't know, Kuoni," Nakemi replied. "Would you like just being called 'Cheetah'? It doesn't sound nice. That's not a real name." She then looked down at Nivio and asked: "Or what do you think, little one?"

"I don't know… 'Lion' doesn't sound that bad." Nivio thought for a while. Then he got an idea: "Or maybe… you can call me 'Loner'."

Nakemi and Kuoni exchanged a surprised, if not confused look. But then, they just nodded, and Nakemi said: "That's okay. If you really like this name…"

"Yes, I do like it," Nivio reassured her.

"Alright, then, Loner it is," Nakemi said.

-xXOXx-

With every day that passed, Nivio's health condition got better. It took another ten days until he fully recovered. Now, he could finally enjoy his life with the cheetahs, or at least try. Sure, he got all he needed. Nakemi and Kuoni treated him like a family member, and he also started to like the place he now lived in. But there were still a few things he didn't feel entirely comfortable about. Nakemi was teaching her son Kuoni a lot of things, like hunting for instance, and she also tried to teach Nivio. As cheetahs and lions don't use the same hunting techniques, those lessons were a little hard for Nivio to comprehend. When she told him to run for a prey, like a field mouse or a rabbit, he usually was out of breath pretty soon. For Kuoni, it was not much of a problem, as he could run faster and cover longer distances than Nivio.

When Nakemi wasn't teaching them, Kuoni and Nivio played together. Kuoni was really happy to have someone his own age to play with now. For Nivio, this was a whole new experience. Yet, the only ones he ever played with were Salina, a monkey, and the leopard Rubani. But the latter didn't really count, as Nivio had only played with him once to make him sleepy at night so he could escape. But with Kuoni, Nivio finally had a little fun in his life again.

The only thing that really bothered him was when Nakemi tried to ask him if he really didn't remember anything about his parents. She didn't do that every day, but occasionally, when he didn't want to be reminded of his past at all. All he wanted was to feel happy and safe here. But he couldn't feel that way as long as he had to deal with the sad things that had happened to him before.

One day, after Nakemi had tried to ask him about this once again without getting a response, she concluded: "I guess you were too young to remember what happened to your pride."

"Why are you so interested in knowing this?" Nivio finally asked her.

"It's just… I was wondering where you come from. Maybe your parents were from the Pridelands."

"The Pridelands? What's this?"

"That's the place where Mom came from," Kuoni exclaimed. "Right, Mom?"

"That's right," Nakemi said. "I used to live there with my clan when I was a cub. It was a wonderful place, ruled by the kind Lion King Mufasa. The Pridelands were always known as a land too beautiful to describe."

"So why don't you live there any longer?" Nivio asked when she didn't continue.

Nakemi sighed and explained: "One day, we were told of the death of King Mufasa and his son Simba. It was a massive shock for everyone living in the Pridelands. And as the young Prince Simba was also dead, it was Mufasa's brother Scar who took over the throne. But within a few weeks, the lands were becoming more and more barren and dry. One by one, all the herds left the Pridelands, and so eventually did our clan."

"Where's the rest of your clan then?"

"Some of them were already killed in the Outlands, north of the Pridelands. Only me and my parents and a few others reached this place. And after a while, some of the others decided to go back to see if the situation in the Pridelands had bettered. They wanted to return and tell us what they've seen. But they never did. And so, only me and Kuoni are left now."

Kuoni added in a sad voice: "Grandma and grandpa died when I was two months old."

"Sorry to hear that," Nivio said. After a while, he asked Nakemi: "How long haven't you been in the Pridelands?"

Nakemi thought for a second, then she replied: "Pretty long. A few years, I guess. I mean, I was still a cub back then."

"And do you want to go back there some time?"

Before Nakemi could answer, Kuoni said: "Mom promised me we'll go there when I'm older, to see if the Pridelands are as beautiful as they used to be again."

"That's right," Nakemi said. "One day, we might return…"

**End of Chapter Nine**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, I hope you liked this chapter, though it was a little short. Hope it didn't bore you. This chapter was not very easy to write as I wanted to put the emphasis on the growing relationship between Nivio and the cheetahs. And now you know it was Nivio himself who thought of the name "Loner". Another thing that really troubled me about this chapter was its title. I'm not sure if the title suits this chapter, what do you think? Anyways, I hope to get the next chapter done sooner than this one. Just be patient, like always. I'm really looking forward to receiving reviews from you! Bye for now & see you around! ;)


	10. A New Disruption

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I don't know what to say. I just can't believe it's been more than one year since I last updated this story! I'm sure you're really disappointed and mad at me and you won't believe me when I say I'm really sorry. And I wouldn't be surprised if you abandoned me and my story now. But the past year had been terrible for me. First, I had my heart broken. I've been pretty depressed for almost half a year! I'm really glad I've gotten over it, but then, I had so much to do for university, one report after another to write! Writing so many reports for university simply destroyed almost all the inspiration I had for my fanfic! But only _almost_! I've handed in my last report (for now), so now I try getting back into this story. I really hope I get to finish it before the end of the year!

Okay, enough talk. Hope you'll still bear with me. First, a little summary of what happened so far until chapter 9, and then, straight to chapter 10. Enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, who had been separated from both real his parents (Roho and Kinja) and his foster parents (two monkeys named Jamili and Chuki), managed to escape from an eerie leopard clan. He was taken downstream a river, until he was finally found by a cheetah called Nakemi and her son Kuoni. He had caught a terrible cold in the water, but the two cheetahs took him in. After about one week, Nivio started feeling better and he got to like the place the cheetahs lived in. Since Nivio couldn't remember his own name, he thought of a name himself: Loner. One day, Nakemi, who always wondered about Nivio's origin, tells him about the Pridelands. There she had lived once, under the rule of the kind Lion King Mufasa. She and her clan had left when Scar had claimed the throne, but she and Kuoni always wanted to return some day…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Ten: A New Disruption**

Nivio and Kuoni could hardly get enough of Nakemi's stories about the Pridelands. From the day when she first mentioned them, they always wanted to hear more. So, Nakemi suggested to tell them a little bit every day at sunset before they had to go to sleep. When the sun was climbing lower towards the horizon and the little savannah was touched by the last rays of its golden light, Nivio and Kuoni would sit together, listening to Nakemi's stories with interest and excitement.

Nakemi told them all the memories she had of the time when she lived in the Pridelands as a cub. She tried to describe the incredible vastness and beauty of the land she once called home as accurately as she could. She would often tell them about the various ceremonies that were celebrated in the Pridelands. And she told them of the many good things King Mufasa had accomplished in his Kingdom. Some of the events she spoke of had even happened before she was born, but she knew about them, because her parents had told her.

When the sun had disappeared and the sky began to turn dark, Nakemi usually finished her sentence, then sighed and said: "Alright, kids, that's all for today. It's time to go to sleep now."

To that, the two cubs usually reacted with pouting and protesting: "Aww, but we wanna hear more!"

"Please, Mom," Kuoni would beg. "Can't you tell us some more?"

But Nakemi would shake her head at that and say: "No, it's enough for now. I'll tell you more tomorrow night."

"I can hardly wait," Nivio would then say excitedly, nudging Kuoni.

At that, Nakemi would stand up and say: "Then let's go to sleep now. Then tomorrow will come sooner."

While getting up and following her, Kuoni would always ask: "But Mom? Can't we finally go to the Pridelands tomorrow? Now that you told us so much about them."

Then, Nakemi would turn around again and answer in a calm voice: "Kuoni, the Pridelands are far away from here. It would take us days to reach them. You two are still too young for such a long journey. We can go there when the two of you have passed your hunting tests."

"When will that be?" Kuoni would ask impatiently.

Nakemi would chuckle and say: "Time goes by fast. Just be patient. Okay?"

At that, both Kuoni and Nivio would nod and follow her to their sleeping spot.

-xXOXx-

And the days and weeks went by very fast indeed. Soon, Nakemi had shared all the memories she had of the Pridelands, even the sad and dark ones of the time when Scar took over the throne and Nakemi's clan decided to leave. Nakemi began to tell them of their journeys as well, but Nivio and Kuoni preferred to hear the stories of the Pridelands they already knew again.

And as time went by, both Kuoni and Nivio had grown quite a lot. They both had passed the middle of their cubhood now, and there was a nice tuft of dark brown fur growing on Nivio's forehead already. Kuoni was quite fascinated by Nivio's little mane, and maybe even a little jealous. He had never seen a lion with a fully grown mane before in his young life, that was the reason why the cheetah cub was pretty excited about watching Nivio's mane fur grow.

As they listened to Nakemi's stories of the Pridelands over and over, Nivio and Kuoni got more and more excited about visiting these fascinating lands some day. But each time they tried to persuade Nakemi to set out for the Pridelands, she insisted that they would not go there before the two cubs would have passed their hunting tests. Almost every day, Nakemi gave them hunting lessons, and every time the two of them were more eager to improve their skills. Even Nivio, who still was not that good in applying the cheetah's hunting methods, tried his best to get better. By instinct, he once tried to further approach his prey before running at it – and he found out that he was more likely to succeed that way.

-xXOXx-

Then, the day finally came when Nakemi decided it was about time to test Kuoni's and Nivio's hunting skills. They had been training for several months by now and grown into pretty strong and agile cubs. Actually, in the past two weeks, every single hunt had been successful for the two cubs.

When Nakemi told them that they were going to have their tests that morning, Kuoni and Nivio were totally thrilled. After they had finally calmed down a bit, Nakemi explained them the exact course of their hunting tests. She also told them that this would only be the first out of three tests for them. The second one would take place when they had reached adolescence, and the third one, of course, when they were young adults. Kuoni was the first to have his skills tested.

"Good luck," Nivio said as Kuoni was about to go.

"Luck? Ha! I don't need luck!" The cheetah cub replied. "I'll be back with the biggest prey in no time. Just watch me!"

Nivio just grinned as Kuoni left to search for a prey. Nakemi and Nivio quietly followed quite some distance behind him. Kuoni was way more excited than he would admit, as this was the first time he had to look for a prey himself. During their training lessons, Nakemi usually picked out the prey, telling them the criteria for doing so. This time, he had to do it all by himself. He decelerated his pace and lowered his position as he caught the sight of a rabbit, quite a long distance away. It was just sitting there in the open field, eating grass, apparently without any kind of protection or hiding place nearby. The perfect prey!

"Looks like he found himself a prey…" Nakemi whispered into Nivio's ear who watched Kuoni, trembling with excitement.

At that moment, Kuoni dashed out of the tall grass, running towards the rabbit at full speed. Noticing him, the rabbit ran for its life. But Kuoni, being in a very good condition, covered the long distance within an incredibly short time, even following the rabbit's winding trail. He caught up with the rabbit and easily took it down.

When he returned, his head held up high, carrying the kill in his mouth, Nivio stared at him in awe. Kuoni proudly put down the dead rabbit in front of them, and Nakemi exclaimed: "Kuoni, that was perfect! I'm so proud of you!"

Kuoni then nudged Nivio and said: "It's your turn now, Loner." And with a giggle, he added: "Good luck."

Suddenly, Nivio's excitement turned into doubt. That rabbit was indeed the biggest prey Kuoni had ever caught until then. It was about half as big as he was himself. Somehow, he felt like he had to take down a prey now that was at least that size, just to impress Kuoni the way he had been impressed. But could he succeed at that? His legs became wobbly at the thought.

"Well now, Loner," Nakemi said. "Are you ready?"

Nivio's heart was racing. He gulped and asked: "Can I… I mean, I can use my own technique, right?"

"Of course, you can," Nakemi answered. "You've been very successful with it."

"You can make it, Loner," Kuoni finally reassured him.

That made Nivio feel a little more at ease. He was still excited, yes, but his doubts were disappearing again. He took a deep breath and left to search for a prey. Again, Nakemi slowly followed quite a distance behind him, this time accompanied by her son Kuoni. Of course, it was an all new challenge for him as well to find a prey all on his own. But it couldn't be that hard, if Kuoni had succeeded at his first attempt. As he quietly crawled through the tall grass, he caught the scent of some field mice. Looking at the ground below him, he could also see their trail. Slowing down, he followed it.

Suddenly, he saw the group of field mice, only a pounce away. He ducked and watched them in awe. Never had he gotten that close to a prey before. He wondered why they didn't notice him, but then he figured that the wind was blowing in the direction he came from. That must have been the reason why he had caught their scent so easily as well. Now, it came to picking one of them. Thinking of Kuoni's catch again, he quickly decided to catch the biggest one.

But before he could pounce, the field mice started running to the right, squeaking in horror. Nivio was confused – did they smell him eventually? But he didn't notice the wind changing. The only thing he noticed was a distant scream: "No! Loner! Come back!"

It sounded like Nakemi! Nivio turned his head to see her running towards him. She had a terrified look on her face. When he turned around again, something approached him from the left. It was a strange scent he had never smelled before. He was unable to move, his whole body shaking with fear. Suddenly, a couple of growling faces appeared before him. Nivio gasped and stared in horror, as he was taken by the scruff.

Nakemi had grabbed Nivio in her mouth, hit the creatures with her claws, whirled around and ran back into the opposite direction. When she had almost reached the spot where Kuoni waited, she let go of Nivio and shouted at the two cubs: "Loner! Kuoni! Run!"

Kuoni snapped out of his shock and ran alongside his mother and Nivio, as fast as he could. "Mom!" he shouted, "What's wrong?"

"They were about to attack!"

"What were they?" Nivio asked, trying to keep up.

"Jackals," Nakemi replied. "I won't let them get you! Run to the river!"

Turning her head, she noticed that the jackals had sped up. They were drawing closer. She couldn't see how many they were in her hurry. But there were at least five of them when she first noticed them. How could she defend the two cubs and herself? They were certainly outnumbered.

Finally, the river was in sight. Nakemi led Kuoni and Nivio to the shore where they had once found Nivio. The jackals were following closely behind them. When they had reached the shore, Nivio and Kuoni tried to catch their breath again. Nakemi frantically looked at the approaching jackals, at the river, at the two cubs – then at the river again. When she spotted the dike in the river, she got an idea.

"Kuoni! Loner!" she shouted. "Cross the dike, run to the other side of the river! Now!"

"But Mom, what about you?" Kuoni squeaked.

"Run!" she cried.

Kuoni and Nivio did as she said. As soon as they had crossed the river, Nakemi took position in front of the dike, blocking the way for the jackals, facing them. There were now eight of them, growling at her, baring their teeth. Nivio and Kuoni gasped in shock at the sight.

Nakemi bared her teeth as well and snarled at the jackals: "What do you want?"

One of the jackals stepped forward and growled back at her: "This will be our territory now. And we will kill you now."

"Then fight _me_," she said. "But don't you dare hurt my cubs."

With that, she quickly whirled around, taking down the dike with two or three strikes. The river was uncrossable now. Kuoni and Nivio stared in horror as Nakemi glanced at them one last time and shouted: "Kuoni! Loner! Leave this place! Run to the South! To the Pridelands!"

Then she turned around, striking at two of the jackals that attacked her now.

"MOM!" Kuoni screamed, dashing forward, but Nivio stopped him. Suddenly, one of the jackals attempted to jump over the river. He almost made it to the other side, but was taken away by the stream before he could reach the cubs.

Tears welled up in both Kuoni's and Nivio's eyes as they watched the fight with horror. Nivio forced himself to say: "Kuoni, we can't help her. We've got to get out of here!"

Kuoni turned to face him. "But they'll kill her!" he sobbed.

"They'll kill us, too, if we don't get out of here!" Nivio weakly replied. "Come on."

And with that, the two of them ran, ran as fast as they could, tears in their eyes.

About one hour later, miles away from the scene of the fight, there they lay: A tan-colored lion cub and a golden cheetah cub, cuddled up closely to one another, under a fallen tree, crying in each other's fur. All of a sudden, they had lost everything they had: Their home, their hopes, their mother. To Nivio, Nakemi had almost become like a real mother. But now, he and Kuoni were all alone. With a desperate sob, Nivio looked up at the sky, where the sun was shining as if nothing bad had ever happened, at the highest point… in the South…

**End of Chapter Ten**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, I hope you liked this chapter. I'm not very content with the ending, but I didn't want to rewrite it and let you wait any longer. And there's no way of getting a better ending to this chapter anyways. I'm very sad myself about Nakemi's death, but I'm afraid this is how the story goes. Jackals? You might ask. Well, it can't always be the hyenas, right? When I first planned the story, there were going to be hyenas in this scene, but I thought I had to come up with something else. Anyways, I can't tell you when the next chapter will be published. I will see to it that it won't be **that** long to wait this time. I sure wish I could finish the story this year, but I can't promise that. Be patient. I hope you'll still bear with me and won't write flaming reviews. Bye for now & take care!


	11. Things could be worse

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I can't find any words to describe how relieved I am to see that at least my most faithful reviewers didn't abandon me. Thank you very much for your kind words on my last chapter: **Kovu115, Sun Rei Lioness, Kiara32, GreatMarta**

It really means a lot to me to see you're still bearing with me and my story. And I'm really flattered by some of the things you wrote, like: "Even if I have to wait 10 years"? "Dedicated fan forever"! "Masterpiece"? Gosh… I think you people are exaggerating a bit here… ;) Okay, now let's get back to the story. First, a little summary of what happened so far until chapter 10 again, and then, on to chapter 11. Enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, who now calls himself "Loner", has been taken in by a cheetah called Nakemi and her son Kuoni, after he escaped from an evil clan of leopards. He really started feeling at home in the little savannah, a feeling he never really had, as he had been separated from both his real parents (Roho and Kinja) and his foster parents (two monkeys). Nakemi had told him and Kuoni many stories about the Pridelands that really fascinated them. She also promised to go to the Pridelands with them, once they had passed their first hunting tests. But just as Kuoni had passed his test and it was Nivio's turn, the three of them were attacked by jackals. Nakemi gave her life in order to defend the two cubs, after she made sure they were able to escape safely…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Eleven: Things could be worse**

After what seemed like half an eternity, Nivio and Kuoni were still cuddled up to one another under the fallen tree, now sleeping. They had actually cried themselves into sleep, as the sun slowly descended and made their shadows longer. But it was an uneasy sleep for both of them, especially for Kuoni. The cheetah cub jiggled and winced, as if he was in great pain. He was indeed in pain, not physically, but emotionally.

All of a sudden, his jiggling increased. He now started rolling and kicking around in his sleep. Nivio's head shot up and his eyes fluttered open as he noticed Kuoni's movements. He sat up, then gently held Kuoni with his paws to prevent him from accidentally hurting one of them.

"Kuoni," he whispered, "Kuoni, wake up."

It still took about a minute, until Kuoni opened his eyes and gasped: "What's happening? Where am I?" He was breathing heavily, his eyes darted around with an anxious expression in them.

"Kuoni, it's okay. It's me, Loner," Nivio tried to soothe him. "I think you were having a nightmare."

Finally, Kuoni calmed down, caught his breath and looked at Nivio. The fear in his eyes had now faded. Nivio let go of him, so that Kuoni could sit up next to him. He still seemed a little confused, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"I _was_ having a nightmare," Kuoni said weakly. "But that nightmare was true. I just saw how the jackals attacked Mom again. I wanted to help her, but I couldn't move."

Nivio's head sunk. He tried hard not to cry himself.

Suddenly, Kuoni sobbed: "Why couldn't we help her? Why did they have to attack us? Why did this all have to happen?"

"I don't know," Nivio replied weakly and hugged Kuoni for comfort. "I just don't know."

_Wherever I am, bad things happen…_, Nivio thought to himself. He just couldn't shake off this heavy thought.

After a while, Nivio looked up at the sky again and noticed the sun in a much lower position than the last time he had seen it. He broke the hug and said: "Kuoni, we better move on, if we want to find the Pridelands."

Kuoni was still sobbing as he asked: "But what if the Pridelands are still ruled by a tyrant, barren and full of hyenas?"

"Then we won't set a paw into those lands. But we should try to find them, like… your Mom said…" In his thoughts he added, _before she died_.

"And what if there are more of those jackals around? What if we are attacked?" Kuoni sniffed.

"We're not safe anywhere," Nivio simply replied.

There was a long silence, until Kuoni said weakly: "I'd feel safer if we stayed here, under this tree. It's getting dark soon."

Nivio looked all around them. The sun was already approaching the horizon. "You're right," he agreed then, "We wouldn't get much farther until night. And we might not find another protected place for the night like this."

For the short rest of the day, they hardly talked. All they did was search for some water to satisfy their thirst. Then, they returned to their sleeping spot under the fallen tree again, lay down closely together and waited for the sun to set and for sleep to overcome them.

-xXOXx-

It was almost noon when Nivio and Kuoni woke up after their first night on their own. It had certainly been a night full of fear and bad dreams, but the two cubs were glad to wake up alive. As soon as they were able to get up on their paws, they went for another drink of water.

Then, Nivio looked up at the sky again and said: "The Pridelands are supposed to be south of here. All we have to do for now is follow the sun."

And so, the two cubs set out on their journey to the distant lands they did not know but from stories of the past. Their way led them through open fields and over small hills. The river, that came from the savannah they once lived in, winded in bigger and smaller turns. At some times, it was closer, at others, it was further away from them. Every now and then, small herds of antelope, zebras and other animals were gathering around. But they hardly paid attention to the little cubs, as they meant no harm to them. Slowly and with their heads hanging, the two cubs passed by them.

Much later, miles and miles away from where they had spent the night, the lands surrounding them became more and more hilly. When the river came in sight again, Nivio and Kuoni stopped to drink some water.

They decided to lay down and rest by the river for a while. After a few minutes, Kuoni's stomach started rumbling, and he said: "We'd better find something to eat. It's been a whole day now."

Nivio glanced over at him as he noticed the emptiness in his own stomach. "Then I guess you should do the hunting for us," he sighed. "After all, I never _did_ pass my hunting test."

Kuoni gulped and replied weakly: "I don't think I can concentrate on a hunt right now. I'm still too… shaken up."

After a while, when Nivio didn't say anything, Kuoni added in a sad, yet more firm voice than before: "But I'm sure you _would_ have passed your hunting test, Loner,… if you had been given the chance."

Nivio couldn't help but smile at what Kuoni just said. With a determined look in his eyes, Nivio got up on his paws and said: "I'm gonna find us something to eat."

And with that, he ran up the nearest hill. Before he had reached its highest point, he ducked and crawled the rest of the way. Once on top of the hill, he stopped to look down, scanning the area below him for prey. After a short while, he spotted a group of field mice right at the foot of the hill. They couldn't possibly smell him, he figured, as the rather big hill shielded him from the breeze. Nivio's heart started pounding, just as it did when he was supposed to have his hunting test, but he tried to stay calm. Slowly, he crawled down the hill, careful not to slide and loosen any earth. When he was half-way down, he stopped to make sure the mice hadn't noticed him already. He only crawled down a little more, then he extended his claws and pounced.

He hit the ground below with a thump, his front legs stretched out. Two of the field mice were buried under his front paws, one under each, killed by his claws. The other field mice had run away squeaking in horror. Nivio gasped, lifted his front paws and gazed at the two mice in awe. He almost couldn't believe what he saw. It had worked!

With a rather proud expression, he returned to where Kuoni waited, carrying the two field mice by their tails in his mouth. Kuoni gaped at him, then smiled as Nivio put down his prey onto the ground before him.

"Wow, Loner, you did it!" Kuoni exclaimed. And in a quite serious tone, he added: "Mom would have been proud of you."

Nivio smiled at the compliment, and a tear escaped of Kuoni's eye at the memory of his mother. Then, Nivio gave the bigger one of the two mice to Kuoni. Right after their little meal, they were on their way again. Nivio led the way to the South.

"Do we still follow the sun?" Kuoni asked after a while.

"The sun is lower and more in the West now," Nivio replied. "We have to leave it more to our right."

This time, they travelled until the sun was setting. Their surroundings didn't change much, though, only the hills were smaller and the ground more barren. Fortunately, they found a little bush to sleep underneath. It didn't cover them entirely, but they hoped it would offer them enough protection.

"I hope I can catch more food tomorrow," Nivio said as they lay down for the night.

"Maybe I can try to hunt for myself again then," Kuoni replied.

After a moment of silence, they both yawned. And soon, they were falling asleep.

-xXOXx-

The next morning, Nivio and Kuoni were woken up by their rumbling stomachs. They both felt like they hadn't eaten in days, so they immediately started searching for prey. But there were no animals to be seen, at least none that were small enough for the cubs to catch. All they could find was a small pool of water from which they drank. Then, they continued their journey, leaving the morning sun to their left.

Noon was already over and many more miles lay behind them, when the two cubs noticed that the lands around them were getting more and more plain and barren. There were hardly any hills or plants around them, no animals and no river in sight. It was almost like a desert. The two of them were totally exhausted and thirsty, as they were now following the hot sun into the South.

As he looked all around them, Kuoni sighed: "Do you think the Pridelands look like this?"

Nivio turned his head and replied: "I don't know, but I hope they don't."

Kuoni retorted: "Maybe these _are_ the Pridelands. Mom said they were all barren and dry when she and her clan had left them."

Nivio shook his head. "These _can't_ possibly be the Pridelands," he said. "There's not a thing we've heard about them here. No big rock, no waterhole, no acacia trees, no gorge…"

"You're right," Kuoni agreed. Then all of a sudden, he stopped and let himself fall to the ground. "Loner, I can't go any further," he sighed. "I'm so hungry, thirsty and tired."

Nivio turned around, went back to where Kuoni lay and sat down beside him. "Me too," he said. "Let's get some rest. I wish there was something to eat or drink around here."

With sadness in his eyes, Nivio looked at his exhausted friend, then at the open area around him. There was just nothing that could give him any hope here. Longingly, he gazed at the horizon in the South. And all of a sudden, he noticed something.

"Kuoni, look!" Nivio exclaimed and got up excitedly. "Do you see that?"

With a little effort, Kuoni got up on his paws. "What?" he asked and followed his gaze. After a while, he knew what Nivio was talking about. There was some kind of a bluish-green area in the far distance.

"That doesn't look so bad," Kuoni said then.

"Whatever it is, I think we should go there," Nivio replied.

-xXOXx-

After a few more minutes of rest, Nivio and Kuoni were on their way again, ignoring their exhaustion, their hunger and their thirst. Hours passed and the sun was climbing lower in the sky as they went on. But no matter how many miles they had covered, to them it seemed as if the promising blue and green area didn't come any closer. They almost lost hope and started believing that what they saw was only in their imagination.

But when the sun was almost setting, and their legs started aching, they noticed that the ground below them was no longer barren. They were walking through fields now, with the grass growing taller and taller. And not far from them was what they had seen as a bluish-green spot before: A small jungle. Their curiosity immediately surpassed their exhaustion, and so they accelerated their pace and finally entered the jungle.

Nivio and Kuoni looked at the huge trees around them with wonder, as they were walking past them. Soon, they had reached a clearing deeper inside the jungle. What they saw made them gasp and gaze in awe: There was a beautiful lake with a rather big rock formation nearby, right before their eyes. After a few moments, they stormed towards the lake and drank from it, as much as they could.

Then, they investigated the rock formation. It had an opening at the side that faced the lake, and when they looked inside it, they noticed there was more than enough room for the two of them. It was almost like a real den.

"I wonder if anyone's been here before," Nivio said.

"Maybe," Kuoni replied, "But I guess it's a good thing no one is here _now_."

-xXOXx-

The first thing they did was rest for a while and regain their strength. But before it got dark, the two cubs went back into the fields near the small jungle and caught themselves some field mice. After all, they hadn't eaten anything all day long. Now, the sun had completely disappeared, and the two of them were lying inside their den, side by side, looking at the reflection of the stars on the lake.

"I really like it here," Kuoni said after a while.

Nivio nodded and agreed: "Yeah, it _is_ a nice place."

Kuoni sighed: "The only bad thing is that we're all on our own."

"True, but you know…" Nivio paused and looked at him. "I guess things could be worse. We got pretty lucky to find this place… and to be alive."

"Yeah…" Kuoni said with a hint of sadness in his voice. After a moment of silence, he added: "I think we should stay here. At least for a while. We can still try to find the Pridelands later."

"You're right," Nivio replied. "Let's get some sleep now. Good night, Kuoni."

"Good night, Loner."

And with that, they closed their eyes. It was the first time they felt at least somewhat safe again, ever since they were on their own. But once they were asleep, terrifying memories of the days past haunted Nivio and Kuoni in their dreams again…

**End of Chapter Eleven**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Okay, I didn't really know how to finish this chapter, but apart from that, it was not that hard to write. I hope you liked it. Maybe there's still a chance that I can finish the story this year. But we'll see about that. There are still 3 chapters to come, and I do have quite a lot of work to do for university again. Just be patient as always. I'm going to upload another little story later today, but it has nothing to do with this one or with _The Lion King_. Yeah, I've been writing on two stories at the same time again… It's a little _Monkey Island_ fanfic I've been writing, so if you're interested, check it out. ;) Thanks again to those who're still sticking with me and my story. I'm looking forward to getting reviews from you. :) See you around & take care!


	12. A Loner again

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Yes, it's me, BeeKay84! I finally got all the work done I needed to finish before X-Mas vacation, so I've got time to continue my story again. But first of all, a BIG Thank You to my faithful reviewers who commented on my last chapter: **Kiara32, Kovu115, GreatMarta**

I'm so very glad to hear how much you like this story. But now, I'll stop babbling, so we can get on with the story. First, of course, a little summary of what happened so far until chapter 11 again, and then, straight to chapter 12. Enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, or Loner, as he calls himself now, already had been separated from both his real parents (Roho and Kinja) and his foster parents (two monkeys). He had been taken in by a cheetah called Nakemi and her son Kuoni, after he had escaped from an evil clan of leopards, who believed in a cruel prophecy involving other big cats' cubs. But just after Kuoni had passed his hunting test, they were attacked by jackals. Nivio and Kuoni were able to escape, because Nakemi defended them with her life. The two cubs spent three days wandering towards the South, in search for the Pridelands, which they only knew from Nakemi's stories. Nivio was able to catch food for them only once, but before the third day on their own was over, they arrived at a small jungle with a beautiful lake and a den formed of rocks big enough to protect them…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Twelve: A Loner again**

On the next morning, Nivio and Kuoni both felt a little better than the days before. One could almost say, they started being optimistic again. As soon as they had gotten up, taken a drink from the lake and caught themselves some mice for breakfast out in the fields, they decided to explore the little jungle they intended to call their home for at least the next few weeks. They were totally amazed by the beauty of their surroundings. The pretty colors of the plants and trees were much more intense now in the light of the morning sun.

"Wow! I wonder if the Pridelands could ever be better than this!" Kuoni remarked after a while.

"Well, I don't know," Nivio replied. "From what we've heard, the Pridelands are too beautiful to describe. But I'd say this applies to this place as well."

"It certainly does," Kuoni agreed.

Until late that afternoon, they were walking about their little jungle, from the East to the West, from the North to the South. There were many tall trees and thick bushes, lots of birds, some bigger or smaller rock formations and a few clearings. Everything they beheld on their way through the jungle made them gaze in awe. But still, the clearing with the lake was the most beautiful place in the whole jungle.

They had discovered that there were fields with tall grass all around the jungle, like at the Northern border from where they had entered the jungle the night before. Occasionally, they would see herds of antelope or zebras grazing in those fields, some closer to the jungle, some further away from it. And when they had reached the Southern border of the jungle, they could make out another jungle far in the distance, a little bit to the Southeast and closer to the mountains. From what they saw of it, it looked as if it was at least three times as big as the jungle they had just explored.

"Do you think we should go there?" Kuoni asked as they were sitting there, gazing at the huge jungle in the distance.

"I don't know," Nivio replied. "We've only just arrived here."

"Some day, I mean," Kuoni added.

"I guess we can take a look whenever we decide to go search for the Pridelands again," Nivio said. He sighed shortly, then continued: "But for now, I like it here."

"Me too," Kuoni agreed. After a short moment, he said: "I'm hungry. Let's catch some food."

"Okay."

And with that, they went searching for prey in the fields. Later, when it got dark, they returned to their lake and lay down for the night.

-xXOXx-

In the following days and weeks, Nivio and Kuoni got to like their little jungle more and more. Day by day, they refined their hunting skills, being able to catch bigger prey, like rabbits, easier than ever before. They were even able to catch little birds in the trees by now, after Nivio had simply tried it out of curiosity one day. Kuoni was pretty scared when he had watched Nivio's first attempt to climb a tree and catch a bird, but Nivio didn't have to climb that high, and he succeeded.

Not only their hunting skills improved with each day, their mood did as well. While they had only concentrated on staying alive the first few days after Nakemi's death, they were actually having fun again after a few days in the jungle. They often played games like tag or hide-and-seek, and sometimes, even the hunts felt like fun to them.

Kuoni often wanted to swim in the lake and play in there as well, but Nivio always refused to join him in the water. He still felt a strong aversion towards water, after having caught that terrible cold in the river, back when he escaped from the eerie leopard clan. Kuoni finally understood. What he didn't know was that Nivio even feared water at times. It was not only the memory of being taken downstream the river, but another, a very old and vague memory he couldn't quite recall. But it was buried deep inside him and made him feel uncomfortable at the very sight of flowing water. Fortunately, the quiet lake didn't affect him _that_ much.

-xXOXx-

One day, Nivio, whose mane was growing very thick on his forehead and already down the back of his neck a bit by now, was hunting in the fields, like he often did. Kuoni was hunting there as well, but he was currently out of his sight. Nivio was crawling through the tall grass, slowly approaching a rabbit he intended to catch. But suddenly, the wind changed its direction and carried Nivio's scent right to his prey. The rabbit started running before Nivio was ready to pounce. But Nivio was determined to catch this rabbit. He wouldn't want to end up having a small field mouse for dinner, so he ran after it.

He tried so hard to follow the rabbit's winding trail that he didn't even notice _where_ it was running to. Just as Nivio started getting out of breath, the rabbit passed by a herd of antelope that was grazing there, startling them. Nivio stopped and gasped. As the herd stampeded in his direction, he let out a horrified scream and ducked down into the tall grass. The antelope galloped away, jumping over him. But one of them, a small one, didn't catch sight of the lion cub and tripped over Nivio's left shoulder, knocking him over. Nivio winced in pain as his vision became blurry.

"Loner!" came Kuoni's voice from a distance. Nivio tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't.

"Loner!" This time, Kuoni's voice was closer. Actually, it seemed to be right next to him. Finally, Nivio managed to open his eyes and slowly lift up his head. Kuoni's worried face appeared above him.

Kuoni sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, you were only unconscious. I thought you might be…" His voice was still trembling with fear.

Nivio moaned and asked: "What happened?"

"I was just about to catch my prey when I heard you scream. Then I saw that herd running right at you…" He paused for a moment, then asked: "Can you get up?"

"I hope so…" Nivio stretched out his right front leg and pushed himself up. But when his left front paw touched the ground, he winced in pain. "Oww, my shoulder."

Kuoni gave him a sympathetic look, then inspected his left shoulder. "I don't think it looks broken. At least I hope it isn't."

Nivio suppressed a tear and said: "Let's get back to the lake. I think I can walk if I'm careful."

And so, Nivio started limping back to the jungle, Kuoni following at his left side, worriedly watching his careful steps.

Fortunately, they had been hunting in the fields at the Northern border of the jungle, so they didn't have to go far to return to their lake. But because of Nivio's injury, it took them longer than it usually did. Nivio lay down in the grass next to the rock formation, because he was still too weak to climb into the den. Once he had made sure that his friend was okay, Kuoni went back to the fields in order to catch some food for both of them.

Later that day, when they had eaten from Kuoni's catch, both cubs looked deeply lost in thoughts. After a while, Kuoni said: "Loner, I think we should go to the Pridelands as soon as possible."

Nivio looked at his cheetah friend in a surprised way. "What makes you think so?" he then asked.

"What makes me…" Kuoni coughed in disbelief. "Loner, you almost got yourself killed today! I think we need help. We're not safe on our own any more. It's a miracle we've been safe until now."

Nivio sighed. "You may be right. But what if there is no help in the Pridelands?"

"We'll never find out if we just stay here."

Finally, Nivio nodded and said: "Okay. We'll set out for the Pridelands as soon as my shoulder feels better."

-xXOXx-

One week later, Nivio felt ready to go. During that time, Kuoni had done the hunting for both of them. He had also applied some of the things his mother had gotten to teach him about herbs to contribute to the healing of Nivio's shoulder. They set out in the morning after their hunt and, as they had agreed to, made for the huge jungle in the Southeast first.

They reached the jungle in the afternoon. They were surprised at how different it looked from the small jungle they came from. The trees were even taller and standing closer together here, and there were much more plants, all in different shades of green rather than the variety of colors they knew from their small jungle.

But what surprised them most was a sight they caught once they had gone deeper inside the jungle. There were many hilly parts in this jungle, many of them topped by large rock formations, with water falling down from them into a river.

"Wow," Kuoni said, totally taken aback. "That looks beautiful. Let's take a look!"

Nivio gulped. He didn't feel at all comfortable. "I don't know," he uttered weakly. "I think we should just find our way to the Pridelands."

"Well, you can stay here," Kuoni replied. "I just wanna take a short look." With that, he sped off towards the hills, up to the first rock ledge. Nivio watched him worriedly.

"There's a path here!" Kuoni shouted.

"Kuoni, come back, I think we'd better move on!" Nivio shouted back in a trembling voice.

"But don't you wanna know where the path leads?"

Nivio hesitated. Then, he sighed and slowly made his way up on the hill. Once he had reached Kuoni, he said: "Alright, but then we'll go on, okay?"

Kuoni nodded and led the way along the path. Nivio noticed it went up, higher and higher, and the trees to their left were standing closer and closer together. With every rock ledge and waterfall they had passed, he felt more uncomfortable. Somehow, this place seemed eerily familiar to him, but he couldn't figure out why. The sound of the water falling and the river flowing underneath them troubled him. At some point, he slowed down his pace and cautiously made his way to one of the rock ledges. He looked over the edge, down into the abyss where the river was flowing. His stomach twisted at the sight.

"Kuoni," he said worriedly. He waited for Kuoni to turn around and join him on the rock ledge, before he continued: "Look how far it goes down here."

Kuoni looked down and gulped. "Whoa, I didn't notice," he then said. "I think you're right, Loner, we'd better turn back."

Suddenly, there was a rustling behind them. Nivio and Kuoni were startled and too scared to move at first. Then, they heard a threatening voice: "Well, well, look what we've got here…"

The two cubs gulped and slowly turned around to come face to face with a smirking leopard. "A lion cub and a cheetah cub, all alone," he grinned. "This is my lucky day."

"Oh no…," Nivio whispered. He recognized the leopard as Akida. And with horror, he noticed that Akida was standing on the path right in front of them, blocking their way. They were trapped on the rock ledge.

All of a sudden, Akida caught sight of Nivio's left front paw, noticing its sand-colored tip. He gasped: "I know you! Yes, you are the lion cub that… _Rubani_…" he spat out the name, "…had claimed to be _the one_…" And with a growl, he added: "…and that should have belonged to _me_!"

At that, Nivio went furious. "Forget it, Akida," he snapped back at the leopard. "I don't _belong_ to _any_ of your kind. You'll _never_ take me back to your evil _cult_!"

Kuoni's terrified look went back and forth between Nivio and Akida, when suddenly Akida fixed an eerie gaze upon him. "Then maybe your little friend here will be willing to come with me…" he smirked.

Nivio's anger increased. "Don't you _dare_ touch him!" he hissed.

Akida shook his head and said in a seemingly innocent voice: "You have no idea what your… disappearing caused. Our clan fell into complete chaos. But now… I even have _two_ chances to prove that _I_ am the rightful leader of our clan, owner of our territory…" With that, Akida took a step towards the cubs.

Nivio couldn't take it any more. He extended his claws and jumped at Akida, catching hold of his shoulder, biting into it. Akida, taken by surprise, roared and tumbled a few steps backwards. Kuoni just stared in shock. Then, after a moment, he followed Nivio's example and jumped at Akida, clawing and biting into his other shoulder. Akida rolled around on the rocky ledge, trying to free himself from the furious cubs attacking him.

Suddenly, Nivio's head shot up, as his own shoulder started aching again. At that, he noticed how close they were to the edge of the rock. "Kuoni!" he screamed. "We've got to get on that path! Jump!" And with all his might, he bounced off Akida, landing on the path with a thud. But at that moment…

"Loner! Help!" Nivio turned around to behold a horrible sight: Akida rolled over the edge, holding Kuoni tight in his claws. And seconds later, they both fell down into the abyss.

"NOOOOOO!!!" Nivio cried.

-xXOXx-

With panic and tears in his eyes, Nivio made his way down the hill as fast as he could. The pain inside his heart increased with every step he took, as he reached the foot of the hill and turned to follow the river. His fear of what he would find grew.

After what seemed to him like an eternity, he spotted two creatures lying at the shore of the river. He passed by Akida first, noticing he was dead. Then, with horror in his eyes, he approached Kuoni who was lying on his back, a few feet away from Akida's body. Nivio gulped and carefully nudged his friend's cheek. "Kuoni?" he squeaked.

There was a quiet moan, and one of Kuoni's eyes opened just a bit. "Loner…?" His voice was barely audible.

A tear escaped from Nivio's eyes as he said weakly: "Kuoni… I'm gonna find help."

Kuoni slowly moved his head to one side, just about an inch, and then back again, as if to shake his head. "No, Loner," he whispered. "I… can't move. Mom… is calling me… home." He paused, then, opening his other eye a bit, added: "I guess… you're… a loner again…"

With that, he drew his last breath, and his eyes stood still. Nivio sniffed and let himself fall down to the ground beside Kuoni.

"No… Kuoni…" he sobbed. And burying his face inside the cheetah cub's fur, he cried his heart out, mourning over the loss of his only friend in the world.

**End of Chapter Twelve**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – _sniff..._ Seriously, I almost cried while writing this last paragraph. I feel bad about posting such a sad chapter again. And I feel bad for killing off Kuoni. He and his mother Nakemi were my favorite characters in this story, apart from Nivio. But I always knew what fate would befall them. At least, one of the eerie leopards encountered the same fate. And I promise, this is the last tragic event in this story. There are still 2 chapters to come, and I'm determined to finish this story before the year is over! Both chapters shouldn't be that hard to write, so I hope I'll succeed. Now, despite the sad ending of this chapter, I want to wish you a merry Christmas already. Hope you'll get lots of presents. ;) I can't wait to read your reviews, they're the best presents I could get. See you soon & take care!


	13. A Predestined Encounter

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Here I am again with another new chapter of my story! Aren't you proud of me for updating so soon? Anyways, thanks a lot to all those who reviewed my last chapter: **GreatMarta, Kovu115, Sun Rei Lioness, Microsoftt**

Though I think Microsoftt's anonymous review wasn't very serious. He just said I should write happy stuff. Well, I'm glad to hear the rest of you likes my fanfic, even in its saddest moments. Now, let's get on with the story. First, of course, a little summary of what happened so far until chapter 12 again, and then, straight to chapter 13. Enjoy. :)

PREVIOUSLY ON "NIVIO: THE CUBHOOD OF LONER" – Nivio, who calls himself Loner now, thought he would finally feel at home when a cheetah called Nakemi and her son Kuoni took him in. But Nivio and Kuoni had to flee, as they were attacked by jackals, and Nakemi defended them with her life. The two cubs finally reached a small jungle with a beautiful lake and a den formed of rocks big enough to protect them. They were able to catch food for themselves and lived somewhat happily on their own for a few weeks. But eventually, they didn't feel safe any more and set out for the Pridelands, of which they had heard many stories from Nakemi. However, Akida, one of the evil leopards Nivio escaped from, finds them in a huge jungle and threatens to take them with him. In a struggle, Nivio can escape, but Akida and Kuoni both fall over a rock ledge into the abyss underneath…

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Thirteen: A Predestined Encounter**

Nivio didn't know how long he had been lying there, crying into Kuoni's fur. But when he finally lifted his head and beheld his dead friend again, he knew he had to get away from here. He slowly got up on wobbly legs and thought for a moment. He couldn't just leave him behind like that. But what should he do? He didn't dare touch his friend's body or even drag him away somewhere. He looked all around him, still sniffing and sobbing. Then, he got an idea. He went over to the bushes growing by the river's shore, tore off some of the plants and carried them in his mouth, placing them all around the cheetah cub's body, as close to him as possible. It took quite some time, and Nivio had to go back and forth between Kuoni and the river several times, but finally, his friend was surrounded by a bed of plants.

After a few moments of silence, Nivio picked two flowers growing nearby and placed them on Kuoni's chest. "Rest in peace," he then whispered, "These are for you and your Mom. I'm going to miss you."

With that, he turned to leave before the tears started welling up in his eyes again. As he didn't really know where to go, Nivio just followed the river. But after a while, the river ended in a small pond. Again, Nivio didn't know where he should go. He just knew he didn't want to stay here. _Anywhere but here_, he thought. And then, he figured that there was only one place left for him to go to. Looking up at the sky through the tall trees, he noticed that it was almost sunset by now. With a sigh, he headed for the North.

On his way through the huge jungle, he stopped only once, when he suddenly smelled a somewhat familiar scent. Carefully, he crawled towards the bushes nearby and peered through them. There, he saw them: A little monkey family, consisting of a male, a female and two kids, one of them being a female nearing adolescence, the other one being an infant. He recognized the adults as the two monkeys he once had believed to be his parents. Nivio cautiously drew back, sighed shortly and went on. _They look happy_, he thought, _I'd only disturb them._

After a while, he found himself at the border of the jungle. He took a moment to look around, then headed for the small jungle in the North, which already appeared on the horizon, through the tall grass in the fields.

It was darkest night already when he finally reached the lake in the small jungle, not even thinking about how lucky he was to make it back there safely. Nivio just crawled into the lonely rocky den, lay down and gazed at the reflection on the water. Tears rolled down from his eyes again, as they finally closed, and his exhaustion overwhelmed him.

-xXOXx-

Nivio spent the entire next day lying in his den, staring at the reflection on the lake. He only bothered to get up a few times to take a drink. But he didn't feel like walking around or hunting. He didn't eat in two days. But when his hunger finally got the upper hand, he went out for a hunt. He didn't care when his prey ran away, and above all, he didn't run after it. He decided just to catch what he'd get.

And so, Nivio started living a life that only consisted of hunting, eating, drinking and sleeping. He only concentrated on staying alive, much like he and Kuoni did for the first few days when they were forced to live on their own. Only now, Nivio was all alone. He had no one to talk to, no one to play with, no one to share his life with. In the first few days, Nivio often dreamed about Kuoni. All those dreams started out fine, but then, he always watched Kuoni disappear in the abyss, screaming, over and over again. Strangely, those nightmares always included the vague image he had memorized of his mother's face, crying out at Kuoni's fall together with him.

The days went by, slowly turning into weeks. Nivio and, above all, his mane had grown visibly. The mane on his forehead was very thick now, growing all the way down to the back of his neck, and a little tuft of mane grew on his chest already as well. He had reached a stage between cubhood and adolescence now. His nightmares had ceased a few weeks ago, and life on his own started getting easier for him. He had gotten used to being a loner and taking care of himself by now.

But one of these nights, he had another memorable dream. Only this time, it was not a nightmare. He and Kuoni were running through a beautiful land, full of herds and plants, laughing. The sun seemed to shine as brightly as never before, illuminating the whole scene. They were running towards a huge rock that reached all the way up into the sky. When he woke up, he knew the meaning of the dream immediately. _Maybe it's time I finally set out for the Pridelands_, he thought, _Kuoni would have wanted me to reach them_.

It was only dawn now. Nivio took a drink of water, then made for the Southern border of the small jungle. And after he had caught himself a rabbit for breakfast, he was on his way through the fields, towards the South.

-xXOXx-

Nivio avoided the huge jungle as best as he could, though he didn't feel entirely comfortable walking through the open fields. The grass grew shorter and shorter the further he came, making him easy to be spotted. He just hoped there wouldn't be any jackals, hyenas or worse around.

Hours later, when he had left the huge jungle far behind, he noticed that the ground was getting totally barren and dry. And as the hot noon sun shone down on his pelt, he started thirsting. Nivio was walking through a desert. He desperately looked around for water, but he couldn't see any. His pace was getting slower, and he paused almost every other minute.

After another few hours and miles, when he was almost breaking down, he finally spotted something not too far away. It looked like an oasis. He had seen many of them on his way through the desert already, or at least he had thought so. Every time he had been trying to reach them, they suddenly vanished. But this time, the oasis was so close already. It just had to be real! And indeed, after a few minutes, he reached the oasis, drank as much water from the pool as he could and lay down in the shadow of the trees nearby.

As he looked all over the place, he noticed that this oasis lay a little higher than the area around it, so he got a good view of what would expect him in the South. His eyes fell onto a river, near the horizon. And behind it, he could make out a barren, sand-covered land with many oddly-shaped rock formations. _Looks like those could be the Outlands_, he thought, remembering Nakemi's descriptions, _then the Pridelands can't be so far any more_.

After he had gotten enough rest, he decided to just go to the oasis that lay closest to the river he had seen. When he reached it, the sun was about to set. So, he drank a little more water and then lay down for the night. _Tomorrow, I only have to make it through the Outlands, then… I will finally reach the Pridelands_. Those were Nivio's last thoughts before he fell asleep.

-xXOXx-

The very next morning, at dawn, Nivio drank from the pool and then made for the river. He covered the distance in less than an hour. Strangely, as he came closer to the river, he thought he could hear voices coming from there.

"Help!" – "Lina, hold on!"

Did he really just hear that? Curiously, Nivio accelerated his pace. As he finally reached the river, he beheld a terrifying sight: Two lioness cubs, a sand-colored one running along the opposite side of the river, and a rust-golden-colored one, holding on to a tree trunk in the water – and she was drifting towards a waterfall!

"Look, Lina, there's a branch. Try to get to it!" the sand-colored cub called to her friend in the water.

Nivio caught sight of a branch, growing out of the riverbank on the opposite side, maybe about 200 yards before the waterfall. The sand-colored cub, who was safely on land, had just reached the place where the branch was growing. The rust-golden-colored cub was just trying to swim towards it. Fear gripped Nivio as he watched. The cub tried to jump off the trunk she was holding on to, reaching out for the branch – but she missed and fell back into the water.

"NO!!!" the other cub cried, panicking.

_I've got to help her_, Nivio thought. He hated water – he feared it. But as the memories of how he had lost Kuoni came up again, he decided: _I can't let that happen again!_

And with that, he raced forward and jumped straight into the water. Driven only by his fear for the cub, he swam and finally caught her by the scruff. As he came to the surface again, he struggled to swim against the current, towards the riverbank, clawing into it. It was hard to hold on to it and not to let go off the lioness cub at the same time, but he finally made his way back to the branch and held on to it. The cub managed to hold on to it as well, and together, they climbed back on solid ground. They both lay there, next to the other cub, totally exhausted.

As Nivio caught his breath again, he lifted his head and took a moment to look at the two of them. He figured they were about four or five months younger than him. When he noticed that the sand-colored one was inspecting him as well, he looked away at the other cub, the one he had rescued. Her rust-golden-colored fur with golden muzzle, belly and paw-tips was soaked, yet had a nice shine on it. Her eyes were of a ruby red color. _She's pretty_, he thought.

But just when he opened his mouth to say something, the rust-golden-colored cub got on her paws to face him, bared her teeth, extended her claws and growled a cub-like growl at him. Nivio jumped to his paws at that and gasped. And so did the other cub.

"What do you think you're doing here?" the rust-golden cub snarled at him.

Nivio was totally confused by that. After a second or two, though, he said: "I think I came just in time to save you. You should be more thankful."

"He's right, Lina," the sand-colored cub agreed. "What is wrong with you? He saved your life, he's a hero."

"I don't need a hero!" the lioness cub called Lina growled and glared back at him. "_We_ don't need _you_."

The other cub gave him an apologetic look and said to Lina: "You should at least thank him."

Lina drew in her claws and approached her friend, whispering, just loud enough for him to hear: "Can I talk to you for a second?"

As they went quite some distance away from him, Nivio sighed and looked down at the ground. He was still totally bewildered by Lina's first reaction to him. While he watched them, not hearing or even wanting to overhear a word of their conversation, he pondered: _What's wrong with her? I just saved her life and she snarls at me. Looks like I can't do any good. Maybe I should just leave them alone. I mean… It's not as if any one is safe with _me_. But… I don't think they should be all on their own… What am I supposed to do?_

As he had finished that thought, they returned to him, Lina still with a hint of aversion, but she managed to say: "Well… okay, um, thanks. I think that was… nice of you."

Nivio rolled his eyes and replied dryly: "You're welcome."

"So…" the other cub started after a while. "Do you want to join us?"

Nivio hesitated. Then, he carefully said: "Um… maybe. If you want."

"Of course, we'd like to." The sand-colored cub nudged her friend who hesitated a bit, but then nodded. As Lina didn't speak up, the other cub continued: "Where do you come from?"

_Not those questions again…_, Nivio thought and just said: "Nowhere."

The other cub was confused. "What? You've got to have a home! What about your parents? And their Pride?"

"I don't have a home, I don't have parents, and I don't have a Pride. I take care of myself," he simply replied. _I hope they'll _never_ ask me anything like that again_.

"O-kay…." the cub said. "Then… do you live here?"

"No, I'm just wandering around. I wanted to take a look at the Pridelands today. But just take a look, nothing more."

"What a coincidence!" she smiled. "We _are_ from the Pridelands."

_So, there _is_ life in the Pridelands again…_

"But we're not going back!!" Lina interrupted.

Nivio didn't expect that. "Why so?" he asked.

"That's none of your business!" Lina growled.

There was an awkward silence again, until the sand-colored cub said to him: "We never even introduced ourselves. I'm Takita, and this is my best friend, Lina. What is your name?"

_Here we go again_… He answered in a bored tone: "I don't have a name."

Lina rolled her eyes and sighed in an annoyed way: "You _must_ have a name!"

"Well, I don't. But if you wanna call me names…" He cocked an eyebrow. "Call me 'Loner'…"

Lina blinked and stared, then said in a mocking tone: "Alright then… _Loner_… So, what does my _life savior_ suggest now?"

Takita rolled her eyes and asked in a more polite way: "Do you know where we could go?"

Nivio ignored Lina's comment and thought for a moment. _Okay, so they don't want to go back to the Pridelands. I wonder if they escaped from a tyrant or if there is another reason. I guess there's only one place left to go to… even if I just came from there. We could be there by sunset, if we drink enough at every oasis in the desert_… And finally he answered: "Well, yeah, I do. Just follow me."

**End of Chapter Thirteen**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, that was chapter 13, I hope you liked it. The scene where Nivio meets Lina and Takita was, of course, based on the scene in chapter 8 of my other fanfic TLK3D. The dialog is exactly the same, I just added those few lines after "Call me 'Loner'" as well as Nivio's thoughts and changed the descriptions, so they are written from Nivio's point-of-view. ;) Well, there's one chapter left to go, actually, it's not a real chapter, it's an epilogue. But you'll see when it's finished, which will be soon, I hope. I also hope you had a nice Christmas! Mine was fine, I got lots of great presents! Now, I can't wait to read your reviews, and just in case I don't get to finish my epilogue in time, I already wish you a great start into a happy new year! See you soon & take care!


	14. Epilogue: At Home at Last

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Here it is, the last chapter or rather the epilogue of "Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner". First of all, thanks a lot to again to the reviewers of chapter 13: **Microsoftt, Kovu115, GreatMarta**

I won't give a summary of what happened so far this time, as I hope you still know what happened. Now, this epilogue actually takes place at the same time as the last chapter of TLK3D. Those who have read TLK3D probably know what happened in between. To those who haven't read it, and to others who might be a little disappointed: I simply _had_ to leave out all the events following Nivio's encounter with Lina and Takita. I would only be repeating stuff, and the story _is_ called "The _Cubhood_ of Loner" after all. His cubhood is just about to be over, and I always planned this story to end like this. Now, let's get to the epilogue. I hope you enjoy it. :)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Epilogue: At Home at Last**

Lina gaped in shock as Nivio finished. To her, it seemed as if her breath had been taken away from her. Never before had she listened to such a sad story, so full of tragedy. All the time, she had thought _her_ cubhood was sad, with her father ignoring her and her brother being so smug about being heir to the throne, although it was _her_ right to rule over the Pridelands some day. But what she just heard made her stomach twist and her eyes fill with tears.

It was their first night back in the Pridelands. For Nivio, it was the _very_ first night there. Just now, as a young adult, he finally reached the Pridelands, after Lina had run away from the small jungle. Her twin brother Ari had set out to find her and Takita, but he only found Takita and returned to the Pridelands with her. Lina had followed them with an evil intent: She wanted to prevent Ari from taking the throne, once and for all. But once the four young lions met in the Pridelands, Nivio was able to free Lina from her madness. And only then, he learned who he really was: Nivio, son of Roho and Kinja, two former Outlanders who now lived in the Pridelands. And he also learned that Takita was actually his sister, Roho's and Kinja's daughter.

After Lina and Ari had left them to look for their parents, King Kovu and Queen Kiara – who weren't in a very good condition at that time –, Nivio stayed with his family to talk about all the things that had happened to him. His parents explained how they had lost him, and Nivio, for the first time in his life, told them everything he remembered. His time with the monkeys Jamili, Chuki and Salina. How he got into the claws of that evil leopard clan. How the leopard cub Enia helped him escape. How the cheetahs Nakemi and Kuoni found him and took him in. How they were attacked by jackals, and he and Kuoni had to flee and live on their own. How they were threatened by Akida the leopard, who fell down into the abyss, together with Kuoni – near the place were Nivio himself had been taken down by a waterfall, when he was just an infant. And how he met Lina and Takita and lived with them in the small jungle.

Now, he and Lina were sitting together in a small cave at the foot of Pride Rock, and he had just told her everything as well. After a long while, when Lina didn't react, but gaped and looked to be near tears, Nivio carefully asked: "Lina? Are you okay?"

Finally, Lina snapped out of it and stuttered weakly: "I… I don't know what to say." After a while, she cleared her throat and added: "It's just… that's so… If only I had known."

Nivio sighed: "Do you see now why I never wanted to talk about my past?"

Lina nodded and forced a smile as the first tear rolled down her face.

Nivio smiled back and said: "But you know… I feel kinda… relieved now. I never thought it would do me any good to talk about the things that happened to me. And I always thought…" He sighed and his smile faded. "I always thought _I_ was responsible for Kuoni's death. And Nakemi's, too."

Lina gently rubbed her head against his mane and said: "It was not your fault. Things like that just happen. And if there's any one to blame for it, then it's the jackals and that leopard, but not you." Then she drew back and sighed. "But I feel terrible now. I feel so selfish for thinking _my_ cubhood was bad. If only I had known…"

"Lina," he interrupted, gently placing a paw on hers. "You couldn't know that. I never told you about it, and you know why I didn't." He paused, then chuckled: "Much like _you_ never told me that your parents were King and Queen of the Pridelands. I haven't known that until today, either."

"That's true," she smiled, as a subtle breeze blew some leaves past the entrance of the small cave. After a moment of silence, Lina said: "But I think there was a reason why all those things happened to you. I'm sure the Great Kings _wanted_ us to meet at the border of the Outlands that day. They knew I would run away from the Pridelands one day, and they knew you wanted to get there. So, they prevented you from going to the Pridelands too early. The Great Kings wouldn't let any one of us suffer without a reason."

Nivio was slightly confused by her explanation. "But I don't quite understand… If I had arrived here at the Pridelands together with Nakemi and Kuoni,… I would have met you and my sister and my parents here… What would have been wrong with that?"

She smiled and whispered: "I see you still have a lot to learn about the Great Kings and the way they help us… Believe me, it would have been the wrong time for you to come to the Pridelands. And if I hadn't run away from the Pridelands, my father would have never learned his lesson from the Great Kings not to defy them. But…" She spoke a little louder again: "We both will learn more about the Great Kings soon."

"We will?"

"Of course we will. Because I am the future Queen of the Pridelands… and as my mate, you are the future King."

Nivio gasped at this. He had only just met Lina's parents, who were slowly recovering from mysterious diseases that had been inflicted on them and the whole of the Pridelands, after Lina and Takita had run away. Of course, they welcomed him into their Pride, as he was the son of their close friends Roho and Kinja. But Nivio still wasn't sure if they would accept him as their future son-in-law and heir to the throne. As he snapped out of it, Nivio carefully asked: "Are you sure they… your parents will accept me as your mate… and future King?"

Lina chuckled and nuzzled him: "I told you already, I'm sure they will. Everything is gonna be fine. But first, we will have to wait until my parents and the Pridelands recover. I'm sure the Great Kings will help us again."

They nuzzled each other lovingly, and after a while, Lina added: "And now we should go back to the den. It's late."

Nivio sighed and smiled: "My first night in the Pridelands… my new home."

"It was always meant to be your home," Lina smiled back, as she slowly made her way out of the small cave.

"I'm so glad I found you, Lina," Nivio whispered, following closely behind her. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she replied.

And so, they went up into the Royal Cave inside of Pride Rock. Everyone was already asleep, as they quietly lay down for the night, side by side.

**THE END**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, that's it. That was "Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner", my background story about the hero of my fanfic "The Lion King 3: Don't Defy Destiny" (TLK3D). I really hope you enjoyed it. I'm afraid the end of this story might only make real sense to those who already read TLK3D, but I tried to include as many explanations as possible about what happened between Chapter Thirteen and the Epilogue. I hope I did a good job with explaining the events, without ruining the Epilogue. Well now, after more than 2 years, this story is finally finished. And I'm really glad so many people enjoyed it, always leaving such nice comments. Thank you so much to all my readers and reviewers, especially to the ones who still were loyal to me, even when I didn't update this story for a whole year.

I want to thank those in particular who didn't abandon me after my one year of absence from this story and reviewed again, when I returned with Chapter Ten in October this year:

**Kovu115** – Thank you so much, you were the first one to review again after my return to the story, and one of my most loyal readers & reviewers! I believe you even reviewed each and every chapter of this story, and I really appreciate this! Thank you for sticking with me for such a long time!

**Sun Rei Lioness** – Thank you, my friend, for all your kind words, like "dedicated fan forever", I'm really flattered by this. I'm so glad you've been always waiting patiently for my updates and you like this story so much! Sorry I had to kill your favorite character, Kuoni, but I still hope you liked the ending of this story. See you around at the archive, I still love your art (and your awesome stories)!

**Kiara32** – Thank you, my dear friend, for sticking with me, and for all your kind words on my story. But don't put down your own story, it's so great! I really hope you won't lose the inspiration and continue it! See you around here and at the archive, you're an amazing artist!

**GreatMarta** – Thank you so much for sticking with me and for your wonderful reviews! I was always looking forward to your reviews most of all, because they were so detailed. I'm really glad you enjoyed this story so much and always encouraged me to go on. And you really flattered me, when you referred to the story with the word "masterpiece". :) Thank you for being such a loyal fan of this story!

Another special thanks to **Microsoftt**, an anonymous reviewer who got into the story quite late. I'm sorry I didn't take your first review seriously, it just sounded to me like you didn't like the story, because it was sad. But I'm really glad you do, so thanks for reviewing again!

And a big thanks to all the other reviewers of the story, even if they didn't return: **Bribles, Nala5, Demo Jackalope** (a.k.a. Machozi)**, Ptikobj** (a.k.a. Troy Wong)**, Lily, Simba's Other Daughter, Ochi, Kovu 101, Flickerfur, Hackage Returns, King Ligerion, **as well as all those who might have read the story without reviewing and the ones who might still read this story some time in the future.

To finish this long Author's Note, I really don't know when I'll get to write my next fanfic and what it will be about. But I'll definitely continue to write, I'm going to have a little poll on my profile page about the ideas I've been pondering, just for fun. As soon as I have more ideas and more time, I'm gonna write another fanfic. In the meantime, I'll definitely continue to draw for deviantART as well as for the Lion King FanArt Archive. Check out my galleries there, the links are on my profile page, my nickname is BeeKay84 on both websites.

Well now, all there's left to say is: Thank you once again for all your support, for your reviews and for sticking with me. I wish you all a great start into a happy new year 2008! Take good care & see you around!  
Bye bye for now, BeeKay84 :)


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